Sudden Changes
by pezgirl1
Summary: 5 new chapters COMPLETED Willow and Daniel have a 1nightstand after getting drunk and over 5 yrs later Willow and her son run into Daniel while trying to get away from a bunch of guys who seem a lot like the Initiative and she wonders how Daniel knows the
1. Chapter 1

Chapter One 

Disclaimer: i don't own anything except Christopher.

6 years after season six 'Grave'

AU after season 5- 'Last Stand part two'

Note: I've changed the show time-lines, Buffy starts three years before Stargate does- in my story Stargate starts in the year 2000 not 1997.

Also note: Chris was born in mid-season 4 of Stargate and mid-season 7 of Buffy which was in 2003 and the story jumps five years later to 2008.   
Chris is almost five years old and was conceived in late 2002 to early 2003.

Year 2008

Buffy punched one of the four vampires in the mouth and then pulled out a stake, the vamp just sneered at her.  
"I'm going to bleed you dry, blondie!"

Buffy rolled her eyes looking bored, "Like a million vamps haven't said THAT before!"

The undead guy snarled and launched himself at her...

and was impaled on her stake.

"Can't you morons even TRY to be a challenge?!" she said looking a little frustrated.

Xander aimed at another one of the vampires with his crossbow and released the bolt, dusting another bad guy.

At the same time Willow staked another vampire quickly, "Three down, one to go," she said looking for the other soon-to-be-dead guy.  
Buffy was handling that one, easily.

"Well, that was a regular fun-fest," said Xander sarcastically while fingering a newly-made tear in his shirt.

"Yeah, I swear that evil isn't even trying any more!" said Buffy mocking the bad guys as if they were right there.

Willow rubbed the spot on her shoulder where one of the vampires had pushed her into a headstone and said, "Well, I'm not complaining."

Willow was extra cautious about using her magic since the Darth-Willow time and tried not to use it too much- or at all.

She would've stopped using it completely but Giles said that she couldn't- that it was a part of her now.

She still had the occasional nightmare about what she did and also what she ALMOST did, she was glad that she had her family to help her through it.  
Her parents of course were as usual completely out of touch with her life and probably always would be.

"Will?" Buffy was looking at her best friend- almost sister.

"Yeah, Buff?"

"It's almost eight thirty and I'm sure that Chris wanted a story before he went to bed," Buffy reminded her.

Willow looked alarmed, "Oh!" she was about to run towards home before she turned around again and asked, "Are you sure you

wouldn't-"

Buffy rolled her eyes and glanced at Xander, "No Will, it's fine- we'll be fine."

Willow looked relieved, gave them a smile and then took off back to her 4-year-old son.

On the way home she remembered how Christopher came to be.

After she'd returned from England and back to Sunnydale had trouble dealing with Tara's death- not the 'I'm going to kill people and end the world' kind of way but the other way.

What she did to try to deal with it wasn't as bad as what she did- but she still had to reap the consequences of her actions, even if she didn't mean for it to go the way it did.

She ended up taking a small vacation in San Diego and getting plastered on her third day there and having a one-night-stand.

She should have known not to go near alcohol especially with the Scoobies record of bad luck, but no no no she decided to get drunk out of her head so much that she didn't even remember it.

All she remembered was waking up in bed with a guy she didn't know or even know the name of- but was very attractive- and then had grabbed her clothes and got out of there.

And if THAT wasn't enough, almost six weeks later she had gone to the Doctors because she thought she had stomach flu or something and was told that she was pregnant.

After a couple of weeks- and almost constant badgering from her friends- she had decided to try to find the baby's father.

After months of trying to locate him she gave up- she couldn't find him anywhere!

At least she had her friends to support her- her parents hadn't even cared, in fact they were angry that she didn't marry a 'nice Jewish man' before she had a child.

They had pretty much disowned her after that and wanted nothing more to do with her.

Well, that was fine with her! She had spent most of her life without their help or attention and she got on okay- she didn't need them.

It didn't stop her from being kinda sad, though.

She still tried looking for the father of her son but she wanted to devote more time to Chris than that.

Willow got to her house and opened the door and had already thought about what story she wanted to read to him.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2 

A special thanks to my beta morgyair!!

Chapter two

Senator Robert Kinsey flicked through a thick file with an amazed and hungry expression on his face, he kept his eyes on what he was reading and picked up the phone on his desk.

On the front of the folder there were photographs of a small red-headed boy floating some dishes behind a kitchen window.

He picked up the phone and said, "Have you got a location?"

The white-haired man looked irritable but replied, "Yes but, a being with that much power is dangerous."

"I know, it's too risky- if he were to ally himself with the demons…yes- he will be disposed of." He hung up the phone and leaned back into his chair and looking thoughtful, then he pulled out another folder.

"But first we have to get past the boy's mother, somehow."

The folder he currently held had two pictures of a red-headed woman, in the first photo she looked no older than nineteen and in the second, the one that was more recent, she looked twenty-seven years old.

There was a possibility that the woman could have the same abilities as the boy, he needed to think of how to approach this.

Then a knock on his door made him jump slightly, "Come in!"

The door opened to reveal an NID agent who was looking harried, the Vice President groaned, "If this has something to do with SG- goddamn-one…!"

The black-haired man nodded and tried not to scowl, "They returned from another planet without the technology they were ordered to obtain."

Kinsey hated SG1 as much as they hated him. His thoughts on how much he hated them were cut short when the Agent kept talking.

"But on a lighter note we've found out that the boy and his mother are in Cleveland," he grimaced. "We just have to narrow down the search."

'Well, that is a definite improvement,' the Senator thought while hiding his grin.

He dismissed the Agent and when the door to his office closed he looked gleeful, 'It would be an even more productive day if SG1 hadn't foiled yet another attempt to gain technology.

'Oh well,' he thought. 'I'll deal with that later.'

Meanwhile at the SGC

SG1 walked out of the debriefing room and we're going to be checked over by Doctor Fraiser at the Infirmary. Colonel Jack O'Neill swaggered slightly while walking with his 'kids' to the infirmary and tried not to listen to Carter's and Daniel's babbling about technology and artifacts.

It always made his head spin whenever he listened so he just tuned them out and thought about fishing and drinking a nice cold bottle of beer.

Daniel was talking about the stone relic that he'd brought through the 'gate and eager to start studying it, "I mean it must be as old as Jesus maybe more…"

But Jack cut him off as a headache flared up behind his eyes, "How about we finish off this discussion after we've had some real food," his stomach rumbled loudly. "And then you can talk about your rocks, Daniel."

Daniel scowled at his best friend, "They're not rocks, they're artifacts."

Jack smirked, "Whatever." He loved winding him up.

Samantha Carter smiled and then said, "O'Malley's?"

Jack practically drooled, "Yeah, a big JUICY steak."

"I'm in," piped up Daniel eagerly and then turned to Teal'c. "Are you coming?"

"Indeed," he said in his usual deep voice.

But first they had to endure the Doc and her big needles.

Thirty minutes later Daniel, Sam, Jack and Teal'c walked out of the mountain and drove to O'Malley's Bar and Grill.

While waiting patiently for their meals to arrive Daniel fiddled with his paper napkin and ripped at it, he fell deep into thought that had been plaguing him for a long, long time.

He hadn't even told his team about what happened well over five years ago.

After Sha're's death he'd been lost and he had done something that his team wouldn't approve of, he'd slept with a stranger.

A redheaded stranger- that was the only thing that he could remember about that drunken night, long fiery red hair and a pair of large emerald-green eyes.

But when he'd woke up she was gone, if he told Jack that he was worried about her he'd probably call him on his bleeding heart.

He knew that she was younger than him, and that was all he knew.

He'd tried to forget about it, at least until he had grieved for his wife's death.

But even now, over five years after that night he still hadn't forgotten about the red hair and green eyes and when he thought about that he felt guilty that he had shamed the memory of Sha're.

Yes, this was one of those times when he preferred not to think about it at all.

He was shaken out of his musings when Jack asked him something, "W-what?"

Jack rolled his eyes at him and repeated his question, "I said 'how do you think Kinsey is taking another one of our "Failed missions?""

Daniel smirked slightly, "How else- probably plotting another way to get us away from the SGC."

"Eh, the General will take care of it," Jack said lazily and grinned hungrily when their dinners came into view.

Meanwhile at Hammond's Office

General George Hammond sighed into the 'big red phone' and said, "Yes, Mr President." He rubbed his eyes tiredly. "I know, SG1 just saved thousands possibly tens of hundreds of people's lives."

"They had to make that sacrifice," he grimaced. "Yes, I will send you a copy of the report."

Hammond looked exasperated and said, "Yes, I am perfectly aware that the Senator is most likely not happy with the turn of events."

He hung up the phone a moment later and rubbed his forehead with his fingers, 'They have the WORST habit of getting into trouble!' he thought.

While SG1 did create a lot of trouble for him to clean up he wouldn't trade them for any other team.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter three

Willow was making pancakes the following morning and pouring them into funny shapes for Chris.

As she loaded a pancake onto his Scooby-Doo plate Buffy bounded into the room and put a kiss on the boy's cheek.

"How's my little nephew?!" Chris laughed as his favourite aunt tickled him playfully.

"Okay!" he answered grinning at the blonde Slayer and putting a piece of his funny-shaped pancake into his mouth.

Buffy grabbed some juice and asked Willow to help her find her Mr Gordo pig, the witch rolled her eyes and looked exasperated.

"I thought you packed it last night," Willow responded to Buffy who was looking sheepish.

"I thought I did too," she replied shrugging.

Willow and Buffy spent the next twenty minutes searching for the stuffed pig, finding it under Buffy's bed. Buffy smiled at her as she retrieved her beloved pig and hugged it. The Slayer looked at the clock on the wall and said, "We ought to get going."

Buffy and Xander had been with Willow for a week because they needed a break from the Sunnydale nightlife, but now they were both going back. "Hey, Buff," Willow called, "If you need any help on the latest Apocalypse or just your run-of-mill demon…"

Buffy smiled at her, "I know and I'll call you if we need any help."

Satisfied, Willow hugged her tightly and then they pulled apart and left the room together.

When Willow had grown during her pregnancy her friends had gotten cautious and had decided that she and the baby would be a lot safer away from the violence of the Hellmouth. She had spent the next five months in San Francisco.

After Christopher Alexander Rosenberg had come screaming into the world she had considered going back to Sunnydale but her friends had been worried and so had she.

Later they, plus Willow, had decided that the Hellmouth and all the evil that surrounded it was no place for a baby to grow up in and had chosen Cleveland, Ohio as a safe place for her and Chris.

Later they had discovered that Cleveland also had a lot of the Supernatural in it, not as much as Sunnydale though. Giles had researched and said that Cleveland used to be an active Hellmouth but it was relatively safe for them to live there.

They had decided to settle down in Cleveland because the Supernatural was everywhere and wherever they went there would always be a bad guy willing to munch on a woman and her baby…that would never change. Willow hadn't turned her back on the fight- she never would- and she decided that if the Scoobies needed anyone to research she could do it online.

Whenever they had no choice but to ask her to do a spell in person Willow left Chris in Clem's care and teleported back to Sunnydale to help. That was the way it had been for over four years and it seemed to work.

Clem wasn't a violent demon but he needed to stay out of trouble, so he moved to Cleveland. When he discovered Willow in Cleveland he offered to baby-sit the boy and Willow had agreed

Clem was a great baby-sitter and even when Chris started showing signs of magic after his first birthday, magic that kept scaring away his demon kitten-poker friends.

Xander had already taught Chris to do the Snoopy dance and they watched A Charlie Brown Christmas together at Christmas. Xander and Buffy were great godparents and Giles made an awesome Granddad

Giles had started teaching Chris languages. After his third birthday Chris had his IQ test and had scored well over 140 just like her, but unlike her Chris's talents were in Linguistics and translating ancient texts. Whilst Willow's talents were in Computers, Math and science, he must have gotten his talents from his father. It certainly wasn't from her, she absolutely sucked at Latin but had gotten a little better with practice.

Willow was snapped out of her thoughts when she heard her son yell in happiness, she smiled and looked over the banister.

"Uncle Xander!" Chris shrieked and ran as fast as his legs would go towards the dark-haired man who was grinning goofily.

Chris jumped into his godfather's waiting arms. Squealing as he was swung around in the air and hugged. Chris grinned and hugged the man tighter. He smelled a mix of sawdust outdoor-smell and aftershave on Xander that comforted him and made him feel safe.

"Hey, how's my little man!?" Xander asked playfully.

"Great, I helped mommy with Latin words that she got wrong and I translated them and got them right and then she gave me an Egyptian figure of Seth-"

Xander sighed inwardly at this, 'I never get what he's talking about, it's okay to have Willow being brainier than me- but an almost-five-year-old.'

He tuned back into his nephew's babbling.

"-thought that Seth the Egyptian god to be nothing more than evil personified and then he killed his brother Osi-

Xander groaned and Willow patted his shoulder sympathetically, he grinned and hugged her and wondered if she was going to save him from more talks on Egypt stuff- at least he wasn't talking about his rocks.

Willow lifted Chris into her arms and he stopped his speech, "Sweetie, why don't we let Uncle Xander grab a cup of Coffee first."

Chris pouted, but didn't talk about Egyptian gods until he was allowed to and ended up talking about it during lunch later.

Xander tried to listen but it was kinda like being in a classroom again- better- but still in a classroom. Luckily their flight was due and he and Buffy needed to leave to catch it. They kissed Chris goodbye.

The combination of having his aunt and uncle leave and not being able to fully explain the gods in Egypt caused him to pout again but it was quickly erased when Xander cracked another bad joke.

Chris laughed and waved 'bye' to them.

Meanwhile at Kinsey's office

"SG-1 has just broken several rules, disobeyed hundreds of orders and last week they failed to bring back any technology to help the fight again an alien threat!" Kinsey stated then glowered at his phone as he listened to the President.

He went red with anger and gritted his teeth, "Yes, Mr President."

Then he hung up the phone and released a growl that would make a demon proud. SG1 had yet again gotten away with things that would have other officers locked up or at least discharged, but no- they got off as usual with nothing more than a slap on the wrist.

The only good news he had was that his search for the boy and his mother was going well and he felt like he was closing in on them after a week of sending people out to track them. He would have the boy and his mother in his hands and then he would find out just what they were. He would see if the things the boy could do were inherited or not. It would be interesting to find out just how different or similar they were to each other, but that was for later. Right now, he just wanted the boy.

Now at the SGC

Jack, Sam, Daniel and Teal'c were in the briefing room once again and sitting around the table and talking with General Hammond.

"So we're cleared then?" asked Jack lazily.

General Hammond smiled, "Yes, Kinsey didn't have enough evidence to get you into trouble."

"Yeah!" Jack shouted and clapped his hands together once in triumph.

Sam hid a smile when the General glared at Jack who had the grace to look a little sheepish at his loud yell.

"I mean," Jack started awkwardly. "Is that so?"

The General's lips twitched slightly upwards.

"Yes, but the President also gave me another piece of news that sounded like a warning," he said in his Texas drawl.

SG1 sat up slightly straighter in their chairs.

"He said that he had a feeling that Kinsey was up to something- he doesn't know what," he trailed off looking a little rattled. "He just said to keep an ear open and eyes peeled for anything unusual."

They nodded.

"You are all dismissed," he said and the team left the room to think over what the General had warned them about.


	4. Chapter 4

Special thanks to my Beta for making the chapter flow better than it would've done!

Two weeks after Buffy and Xander flew back to Sunnydale Willow and Chris were in the Supermarket shopping. He wandered over to the magazine rack and picked up a Puzzle book on Ancient Egypt. He sat down on the floor and started reading the puzzles and working them out in his head because he wasn't allowed to write in the books that he wasn't buying. When his mom called he put the magazine back and followed her to the car.

When they got out of the car fifteen minutes later a demon jumped them catching Willow off guard and knocking her to the ground. The demon flew back into a tree as if pushed by something invisible.

Willow looked at Chris as he surveyed the growling demon still hanging in mid-air, she conjured a fireball and took aim and threw it at the demon.

The demon's swearing filled the street she and Chris lived on, then he burned away into oblivion. As Chris's telekinetic concentration wore off, he looked triumphant and then concerned as his mother rubbed her bruised arm.

"Are you okay?" he asked looking at her with scared blue eyes as she scanned the street to see if anyone had seen anything.

Willow turned to her son and smiled at him, "I'm fine, sweetie."

Then she looked down at her shopping bags, a lot of the items had fallen out. She sighed and looked at Chris, then began picking up the fallen items.

"Wanna help mommy?"

Five minutes later Chris grabbed his book and sat at the table with his glasses on his nose. He ran a small, pale hand through his red hair, which fell down to his earlobes and covered his ears and he drew out some Egyptian symbols. Afterwards he read some Latin and translated the language it into English; he loved translating and already knew four languages, in addition to English. He knew Latin, Egyptian, French, Italian, and a little Spanish.

Sometimes he had to go to Daycare when his mommy went to work and couldn't look after him. He liked it there sometimes but at other times he hated it. Some of the kids picked on him and others left him alone because they thought he was odd, it was either his brains or his magic that did that.

There were two kids that had befriended him though, even if they couldn't understand what he was saying. Tyler and Hailey were his best friends. They had both came up to him and said hello and then after they saved him from a big bully they became best friends. He even got to have them over for lunch sometimes.

Tyler was really brave and nice and had really cool hair, it was jet black and it reached just above his shoulders. He was funny and loved playing jokes on people. Tyler often got into trouble for it but that never stopped him.

Hailey was like him and was more likely to understand him. She also liked to play jokes as well, but not as much as Tyler. She almost cried on his third day at Daycare when a bully had called her a dumb-blonde, but she wasn't dumb so it was pretty stupid of him to say that.

Hailey liked to listen to him talk about Egypt while Tyler usually said that his head was going to go pop that made him snicker sometimes.

"Honey, lunch is ready!" his mommy called from the kitchen. He sniffed and smelt something that might be Ravioli. He loved Ravioli.

He jumped up and ran to the table with his book, pencil and paper just as his mommy put the bowl of Ravioli in front of him.

"Mommy, where's Loki?" he asked as she sat down.

Loki was Chris's teddy bear that he'd gotten last Christmas.

He'd named it after a Norse god.

"He's on the sofa where you left it, sweetie," she replied.

When he finished his lunch he went to get the bear and hugged it. He flicked the television on and made it play Atlantis.

When Atlantis started, he stuck he thumb in his mouth and hugged Loki tighter.

Willow checked on her son a few minutes later and saw him watching his favorite video again. Smiling she went upstairs to have a bath.

Not for the first time she wondered what her son's father was doing, if he was alive, if he'd want the sudden change of having a woman and child. After she had her bath she got out her laptop and started searching for him again, maybe she'd get lucky this time, for some reason she felt like she needed him.

At the end of Willow and Chris's street an unmarked grey van pulled away from sidewalk and drove off.

Meanwhile in the Kinsey residence

Senator Kinsey was snoring in his armchair files on his lap. He woke with a start when his phone rang loudly.

He grumbled and picked up the phone, "Yes," he snapped rudely.

His expression changed from groggy and irritated to excitement and glee, "Well, that's certainly great news Agent Foley." The white-haired man smiled, for once very pleased. "Yes, have the tapes on my desk by tomorrow morning." He hung up and grinned wickedly, one of his Agents had finally found them.

Daniel's apartment

Daniel's Dream

Daniel looked around the strange room and jumping when he heard a voice and saw the blonde woman standing beside him.

He swallowed nervously and looked around, "What's going on?"

The blonde woman smiled at him her blue eyes twinkled but then looked serious and said in a soft but strangely loud voice, "You have to help them."

He looked confused, "Help who?"

"The two people who will become a large part of your life," she said cryptically.

Still confused, "W-what?" he stammered.

The woman grimaced and said, "Boy, I never in my life thought I could do cryptic."

"You have to help them, if they ever got their hands on him- on Wil- the woman, if she loses her child she'll-" the woman looked saddened. "She's already lost control once, you have to stop it from happening again."

The woman looked at him pleadingly.

"What?!"

But the room and the woman faded away slowly, "I don't understand!"

Daniel woke up and looked confused, "Wow- what a dream."

He wondered who the blonde woman was, "It was nothing…nobody, just a dream."


	5. Chapter 5

Kinsey stuck the tape into the television and sat down at his desk, he watched the screen with excitement and curiosity.

He watched as the two people he was looking for came out of the car. Watched as someone slammed into the redheaded woman knocking her over onto the ground. The person looked a little odd- a little out of shape.

The man flew backwards into a tree and just hung in mid-air staring down at a small figure that must be the boy.

Kinsey's eyes widened in disbelief when the woman got up and- grew a ball of fire in her hand throwing it at the man.

His disbelief continued as the man combusted into nothingness. The man's scream an inhuman guttural sound. The woman had done the impossible and defied thermodynamics- how could a human create fire?

He stopped the tape and looked at the photographs the agent had taken. He looked at each one of them and stopped at the one of the boy floating some dishes.

Well…the boy had some Telekinetic ability and the mother had pyrokinesis, maybe the boy had that kind of power as well.

Oh well, he would eventually find out.

He picked up the phone and ordered NID agents to obtain the boy and his mother grinning as he hung up the phone.

This might be the breakthrough they needed to defend Earth against the Goa'uld and other alien threats.

There were also other uses for the boy as well, but those would come after he had his weapon.

Meanwhile at the SGC

Daniel hurried around a corner and nearly collided with an Airman, "Sorry," he muttered briefly. Grasping his papers and the stone tablet to be translated he strode into his office and started to work on the needed translations.

"I think I've got it," he mumbled to himself and picked up a pen.

Jotting down more notes, he shook his head slightly. "I've never come across a language like this, but I've seen parts of it."

He translated the words he did know, "…made…comes…generation…witch…child's…end…vengeance…hope…go…burning…all," he shook his head and reached for his coffee and winced slightly- it was cold. The bits he could translate were vague; he would need to work on it more. The word 'god' stuck in his mind making him want to understand the message even more.

Sam walked into Daniel's office, "The General wants us in the briefing room asap."

Sighing Daniel got up and followed the blonde out of his office. He would have to work on the tablet later.

General Hammond, Teal'c and Jack were already in the room by the time they entered and Daniel noticed 'Disaster' Davis was there as well

Why was he here? Daniel wondered.

"Major Davis?" prompted the General.

The man spoke up, "We've been getting information from the President that Senator Kinsey sent a squadron of special agents to Cleveland. No one knows why."

Jack frowned, "You don't think this has anything to do with what the President warned us about?"

Davis and Hammond looked at each other, "We can't find any explanation," said Davis.

General Hammond sighed, "Colonel I want you and SG1 to go to Cleveland and have a look around."

Meanwhile at the Rosenberg residence

It was two days after she'd tried again to find the father of her child again- and just like before she came up with nothing. Willow ran a hand through her hair and deep in thought. Getting up she walked into the kitchen and got her son a carton of Apple Juice from the refrigerator.

She then walked into the living room where her son was studying his Spanish. His eyebrows furrowed in concentration. She smiled when he looked up at her. Laughing she ruffled his hair and handed him his juice.

Chris ducked his head away from her offending hand and growled, "Mommy!" His grin at odds with his words.

Willow grinned back, "How is your Spanish coming, sweetie?"

"Great!" he said excited about the new language. He and Willow sat on the sofa together as explained the finer points of his lesson to her.

An hour later Chris was in his Scooby Doo pajamas and climbing into bed, he pulled the light blue covers over his legs and asked, "Can you read me a story?"

"Which one?" She asked. Sighing when Chris shook his head at each of the books offered. "Not a book-story, huh." When he nodded Willow sighed, he had been asking for Scooby stories a lot lately. He wanted to know about life in Sunnydale, about life on the Hellmouth.

Willow was about to decline as usual but paused, there was one story that she could tell him.

"Okay." Chris grinned brightly and lay down and pulling the covers up to his neck, and staring at his mother expectantly.

Willow licked her lips and then started, "It was Halloween of the year 2000- I dressed up as Joan of Arc, Xander was- well, he was supposed to be James Bond, Oz was God and…"

A little later Chris and Willow were both laughing, "…and the text below the picture read 'actual size'"

"So then Buffy decided to get rid of it by stepping on it!" Mother and son laughed with Chris now sitting up and leaning forward slightly, his head pressing into his mother's shoulder as he giggled.

"Well, that's all for tonight," said Willow kissing her son on the forehead.

Chris lay back on the bed and stretched his arms up and out for a hug, "Night, sweetie." Willow said as she leaned down to give him a hug.

"Night," he replied back.

Deciding to have an early night Willow put on her night clothes and got into bed, in less than ten minutes she and Chris were fast asleep.

Meanwhile outside the house

Everything was silent except for the rustle of trees and bushes. Then a man came out of the darkness. He was followed by another person in the same dark clothing.

The lead man grabbed a small radio attached to his jacket and responded, "Perimeter secured, over."

Another voice responded, "We've got the place secured and surrounded- ready to go when you are, over."

The lead man responded immediately, "Move out, over and out."

The lead man gestured with his hands to the figure behind him and they started silently towards the dark house.

All the while Willow and Chris slept unaware of the approaching danger.


	6. Chapter 6

Daniel's dream

"Daniel," the archaeologist faced the blonde woman again.

"Uh, hi," he stammered slightly.

The blonde smiled at him, "She's trying to find you, y'know."

Daniel looking confused stated, "Why are you being so cryptic? This is a strange dream."

The woman shook her head slightly, "This isn't a dream. You need to help them."

Daniel's shoulders sagged, "Help who?"

"The woman and her child," answered the blonde. "You need to save them from the people who want to use the child as a weapon against the monsters who pretend to be Onak."

Daniel let out a breath of incomprehension and the blonde continued, "Just keep to the path you are on."

What path?

She smiled at him, "You'll know ..."

Time: 11:13pm

Daniel woke up suddenly and found he was slumped in his plane seat, he sat up and wiped at his mouth.

"Onak?" he thought for a second. Onak meant God!

The woman's words came back into his head, 'You need to save them from the people who want to use the child as a weapon against the monsters who pretend to be Onak'.

Monsters who pretend to be…god!

She meant the Goa'uld!

Daniel fought against the logic that said it was all just a strange dream and using that same logic he reviewed the dream.

'From the people who want to use the child for a weapon against the monsters,' he needed to think about that.

"Hey Danny boy?" he was jolted from his thoughts by Jack who was filling out a crossword puzzle. "You gotta pen?"

Daniel rummaged around in his pockets and pulled one out handing it to Jack.

"How long have I been asleep?" he asked.

"A couple of hours," the Colonel replied. "We have less than two hours until we touch down."

Airtime from Colorado to Cleveland 8 hours but on a private jet that caught a tail wind it was only 6. Jack was please, it paid to have friends with a private jet

They fell into silence and Daniel glanced at Sam and Teal'c, the blonde Major was working on her laptop quietly while Teal'c was looking stoic and almost bored as he finished his cheesy biscuits.

Daniel knew they were going to get to Cleveland fast he just wished it was faster.

Meanwhile back at the Rosenberg residence

Time: 5:30am

The house was dark and silent except for the rustle of trees outside, the cars passing by and the quiet noises that the refrigerator always made.

The house was always like this on weekends until seven am when the older Rosenberg awakened to make breakfast for her son.

Willow had the covers over her shoulders as she slept quietly occasionally making unintelligible noises in her sleep.

Chris was curled up in a small ball under his own covers so that only his forehead and red hair peaked out, he shifted in her sleep and pressed his face into his pillow and gave a sleepy sigh.

They were oblivious to the fact that six figures had surrounded their house and were beginning to close in.

One of the figures withdrew an item from his pocket, stuck in on the window glass next the back door and twisted it around cutting a big circle into it as if using a compass to draw a circle on paper.

The dark figure pulled on the compass creating a hole big enough for him to put his whole arm through.

He reached through the glass, searched for the door lock and smirked when he found it. The door opened quietly and the two agents slipped inside to open the front door for the other agents.

Once inside two of the agents guarded the house doors while the others crept upstairs silently.

They neared to the bedrooms tense with anticipation…and then a loud roar filled the house.

"Crap!" said one of them as they kicked at a toy dinosaur that was moving its plastic legs robotically.

That was more than enough noise to wake the targets so they abandoned their attempt at being subtle and charged into the bedroom that had a poster taped to it.

Chris was looking around disorientated and started struggling as a dark figure grabbed him and pulled him from his bed.

He started to yell but a gloved hand covered his mouth muffling the sounds; he squeezed his eyes shut and magically slammed two of the figures into the wall when they moved towards him.

But his concentration was breaking because of his fear, he continued struggling and whimpered as he felt a sting on his forearm; he started to feel dizzy and sleepy.

The last thing he heard before everything went black was his mother's angry yelling.

The agents only knew fear and pain as the mother of the child they were taking unleashed on them; they flew in all different directions and bounced off walls and ceilings painfully.

The four-year-old had been dropped back onto the bed when his captor had backed away in fear from the redheaded woman; he was then thrown around the room and out the bedroom door.

The others tried to run but she caught them and gave them a scary black-eyed looked that promised them a very painful death … very soon.

One of the agents had to dodge a ball of energy, the window shattering as the ball slammed into it and out into the night's sky.

Willow gathered her magic and threw all three of them from the room and down the stairs shaking with rage, she tried to push the anger down and began checking out her son.

He was slumped on his left side unconscious. She breathed in and out slowly to calm herself her son needed her not the scary Willow.

Chris was safe now; the people that tried to take him were gone.

She continued breathing deeply and then her black eyes returned to emerald-green and her hair, which had been black went back to red.

She swallowed and ran to her boy's vulnerable form; she checked for a pulse and found that it was strong and steady.

She hugged her son close and closed her eyes, relieved…

Then she heard a familiar shot of a tranquilizer gun and felt a jab on her back a second later, everything went hazy and then she was swallowed up into oblivion.

The two agents that had previously guarded the doors looked at the motionless forms of their targets and grabbed them.

They had a mission to finish. 

Meanwhile several blocks away

Daniel, Jack, Sam and Teal'c looked around the street carefully searching for anyone acting suspicious.

"See anything?" asked Jack quietly.

They all declined, the street was silent.

Sam saw a ball of light fly up into the sky and explode loudly and temporarily filling the street with an eerie blue glow before fading.

"Sir?"

"I saw it Major," said Jack still looking at the sky. "It would be hard not to."

"What was it?" asked Daniel.

"We'll check it out," ordered Jack and started running towards the direction the light came from.

They followed without a word.


	7. Chapter 7

Sudden Changes chapter seven

The two agents carried their targets out of the boy's room; the agent dragging the older redhead stopped for a second and lifted her into his arms securely. He looked at the floor so that he could evade the child's toys lying around.

They made their way to the stairs trudged down carefully, the guy holding the boy went down two at a time and walked through the kitchen; the man holding the boy swore quietly in pain after he crashed into something; he put the boy over his shoulder and used his free hand to rub his knee.

They continued through the kitchen and then through the door with no further interruptions.

The door to the Rosenberg house slammed open and two darkly-dressed people came out carrying a woman and a little boy, they walked up to their van and placed them both in the back of the vehicle. Using rope and tape the agents tied their hands behind their backs and tied their legs together before taping their mouths.

One of the agents jumped in fright as a cat screeched at him, he shook his head in disgust and tried to scare it off; the cat streaked off down the sidewalk.

"Grey, move it!" said the other agent impatiently. Agent Grey nodded and turned away from the road that the cat had just run along.

They both jumped out of the back of the van and slammed the door shut before getting in the front; they pulled away from the curb.

Jack ran towards wherever the light ball had originated from and heard his team running beside him, he wondered what the NID had done this time; whatever it was he was betting that it wasn't good.

"Whoa!" yelped Jack keeping his voice low. A cat had just sped along the path that they were on and had almost collided with him; the feline screeched and kept running. Then they heard a shout that sounded suspiciously like an order; they looked at each other and took off running.

SG1 ran around a corner and saw an unmarked van pull away from the curb; the door the house nearest the van was wide open, and they just knew that the people inside the van were NID; no way would someone leave their front door open in the middle of the night.

Jack ran towards the van intent on stopping it from driving away, he ran faster as the vehicle started speeding up and got to the door nearest him; he wrenched it open to get the driver's attention…

And was shocked momentarily when he saw a young woman and a little kid tied up and looking very unconscious; the van swerved violently and he fell forwards and landed hard on the ground.

Jack lifted his head from the ground and saw the van driving off, "Shit," he muttered and punched the ground in anger; those SOBs had just kidnapped a kid and a young woman.

Jack saw Teal'c try to catch up with the van briefly before realizing that there was no way that he'd ever catch it; the Jaffa strode back scowling slightly. No matter how 'slight' the scowl was it always looked scary on the big guy.

"What do we do now?" he heard Daniel ask quietly. "Jack, what was in there?"

Jack glared at the street corner that the van had disappeared around, what did those bastards want with a child and a young mother?

He'd bet his entire bank account that Kinsey had something to do with it, the slimy snake would stoop down to the lowest level to get what he wanted: Power and control.

Jack pushed himself to his knees using his hands and then stood looking pissed, "They just kidnapped a little kid and his mom."

Daniel looked upset, "Oh god, we have to get them back!" The only thing they could do at that moment was call Hammond; who would in turn call the President.

Sam looked as upset as the Archaeologist did, "We should phone the General, we can't do anything until we do."

Sam knew that the NID were capable of a lot of terrible things; making lab-rats out of a boy and his mother was something that they could do without feeling any remorse. No one deserved to be a lab-rat for the rest of their lives especially not them.

She pushed down the feelings of righteous anger and pulled out her cell phone; she gave it to her CO and turned back to the road as if hoping that the van would come driving back somehow.

She heard the phone conversation between the Colonel and the General, she sighed and waited for the call to end, a few minutes later Jack got off the cell and handed it back to Sam who put it in her pocket.

"The General wants us to find a picture of the hostages so that we can do a background check to find out why Kinsey's goons would want them in the first place," he said looking at his teammates. "So we gotta do a little snooping around."

As they walked towards the open door Daniel turned to his best friend, "What is the General going to do?" he knew that the General wouldn't just sit back and let the NID capture innocent civilians especially since one of the said civilians was a small child.

"He's getting on the phone to the President," Jack replied. "He's working on getting them both back safely."

Daniel looked relieved, "I can't believe that Kinsey's stooped this low just to get power." He shook his head looking amazed and disbelieving.

Jack gave him an incredulous look, "I can!" he stepped through the door into the house and then said, "Kinsey's a power-hungry old son of a bitch, this is exactly something that he would do."

Sam nodded in agreement as she fell into step with Daniel, "Yeah, but why would he think that a boy and a young woman have any power whatsoever?"

Jack walked through the kitchen and turned the lights on so that he could navigate his way around the house without getting too many bruises, "That's what we're here to find out, Carter."

Daniel smiled as he saw a child-like poster of a pyramid and some Egyptian gods; he saw a name written on the top corner of the poster in blue ink: it read _Chris Rosenberg_ in child-like letters.

The archaeologist walked out of the kitchen and then into the Lounge; he walked over to a shelf that held several photos of different people on it. There was a blonde girl and a dark-haired boy in one of the photos who looked like they were close friends.

Another photo to his right caught his eye; he looked at it and his breath caught in his throat, "That's impossible," he whispered under his breath.

It was a photograph of a young redheaded with big emerald-green eyes; the woman next to the redhead was equally familiar, she was blonde and had bright blue eyes.

The woman in his dream- or whatever it was- was staring right back at him with her arm around the redhead; they looked just like him and his wife had looked in Abydos.

In love.

He didn't know what was more surprising, the blonde woman who had visited his dreams or the redhead who he had…uh, _met_ after Sha're was killed.

He turned the picture over and looked at the back, usually there was a name or names on the back of a photo; so he took the photo out of its frame carefully and looked at the back.

_Tara and Willow- 2001_

So, the blonde in his dream was called Tara; the woman who was trying to warn him of something.

Daniel thought again about how crazy this was as he placed the photo on the shelf as another picture grabbed his interest; he picked it up and looked at it; Willow was holding a baby, as small and delicate-looking child with red tufts on his head.

Daniel looked closer and saw that she looked about twenty-two years old, she had the same beautiful smile that she had five years ago when he'd first met her- and of course the night that he hadn't been able to forget as much as he'd tried to afterwards.

He looked at the little baby in her arms and was confused when he felt disappointed as he looked at the photo.

Why would he be disappointed? He didn't even know her; they hadn't even talked for the last five years and it was obvious that she had a boyfriend because where else had the baby- wait a moment…

He looked back at the picture of Tara and Willow; they looked like they were in love…so she couldn't have had a boyfriend- unless the blonde had died before she had the baby.

There was only one way to find out at the moment, ignoring the twinges of guilt that he felt while he was rummaging through someone else's property he took the picture from the frame with the same amount of care he had used on the first one.

He turned it over; nothing.

Disappointed, he put the photos back in the frames and looked around the room again; he found a certificate with lots of different coloured cartoon bears over it, he picked it up and read it.

_This certificate is awarded to: Christopher Rosenberg, for colouring a brilliant picture._

Daniel looked at the year which was printed in tiny letter, '2007'. He narrowed his eyes in confusion, he didn't know why but he suddenly had a burning desire to find out about the boy and his mother.

Chris must have been born a year or two after they met and by the looks of the certificate it was something that a school would give a student. How old was this boy?

Daniel walked back to the shelf and saw a photo of a boy with longish bright red hair and a familiar grin, he shook his head. Chris looked about three or four years old, but that would mean that he was conceived close to the time when he'd 'met' Willow.

He took the photo out of its frame and turned it over, it read;

_Chris age 4- born on July 2003 _

Daniel did the Math in his head; he was obviously conceived in late 2002 through to 2003 when he was born, the dates all started with the night that he and Willow had met.

"Daniel?!" the archaeologist jumped in shock and spun around to face Jack who was looking at him in exasperation, Daniel blushed slightly.

Jack looked at the picture that Daniel was holding and saw the date; he made a disgusted sound and said, "What the hell does kidnapping a four-year-old accomplish?"

"Um…" he shrugged feeling perplexed as his mind tried to wrap itself around what he'd just found out, another part of his mind said that it was entirely possible that it could just be a coincidence.

Then Daniel remembered Tara's words in his dreams;

"You have to help them."

"The two people who will become a large part of your life"

"You have to help them, if they ever got their hands on him- on Wil- the woman, if she loses her child she'll-"

"She's already lost control once, you have to stop it from happening again."

"The woman and her child,"

"You need to save them from the people who want to use the child as a weapon against the monsters who pretend to be Onak."

His mind worked rapidly to add up all the facts, the two people who will become a large part of my life… Tara had then almost slipped up and said 'Willow'.

Daniel swallowed nervously and completely forgot that Jack was standing next to him.

If Chris _was _his son, then both of them would become a big part of his life.

Then Daniel's mind jumped to the last thing Tara had said to him, 'Save them from the people who want to use the child as a weapon against the monsters who pretend to be Onak- Gods.

The Goa'uld, who would want to use them as a weapon to fight the Goa'uld…the NID!

Oh god! He was supposed to save them both from the NID; she was talking about Willow, Chris and himself!

Suddenly everything cleared and he understood, but there was one thing he didn't understand; what did she mean by Willow losing control?

Losing control over what? Her temper?

"Daniel?!" Jack looked pissed an a little worried. "What is up with you?"

Daniel saw that Sam and Teal'c were also in the room looking at him in confusion, and then he gave them a dumbstruck look as he wondered how he would tell his teammates about all this.


	8. Chapter 8

Sudden changes chapter eight (real one) 

Gripping the frame of the photograph tightly Daniel looked at his friends' expectant and concerned faces- or in Teal'c's case a raised eyebrow- and then looked back at the picture of the two people that were now going to be a part of his life. Resisting the feeling of being close to passing out he walked over to the sofa in a stunned silence and collapsed onto it, he swallowed hard and looked at the people in front of him.

Jack sat down next to him never taking his eyes off the archaeologist for a second, "Daniel, what is it?" he asked trying to snap him out of his silence.

Daniel rubbed his face with his hands as he tried to work out how to tell them everything that he'd just found out, after several moments of silence he gave Jack the photo of Chris before feeling foolish, he honestly didn't know what to do or say. It's not everyday that you find out you suddenly have a young son, it's not everyday that you have to rescue the said boy and his mother from rogue agents that'll turn them into lab-rats.

Sam frowned in confusion and looked at Daniel worriedly, she saw her CO look up from the photograph and give the archaeologist a perplexed and frustrated look; he shook his head and said, "It's a picture Daniel, so what?"

Daniel gestured with his hands and looked like he wanted to say something, but didn't quite know how to say it. Jack knew that look all too well and decided to give him some advice.

"Daniel, don't beat around the damn bush, we don't have a lot of time. Just say it," he said.

Daniel considered this for a moment before nodding and saying, "Okay, I uh…I know that boy's mother."

Sam looked confused, "How? You-you live pretty far away from here."

"I-" he paused uncertain. "Five years ago…when-when Sha're died and I took time off from the SGC, I uh kinda…sleptwithacompletestranger."

The last part of his answer came out rushed but he saw that his team mates had understood what he'd said.

There! He'd said it; it was all out in the open.

He looked at his team mates trying to gauge their reactions.

Sam's eyes were slightly wider than usual, Teal'c's eyebrow yet again raised and Jack's eyes were round and both eyebrows were raised. If the situation weren't so serious he'd be trying not to laugh at the tiny, little 'o' that Sam was now making with her mouth would've seemed comical to him.

Jack didn't speak for a few moments, then he asked, "Why didn't you tell us?!"

"Why didn't I- Jack! I…Sha're died!" Daniel ran a hand through his hair. "I wasn't dealing- I got drunk and slept with a woman I didn't know only a few weeks after Sha're died, I keep thinking about how damn disappointed she would be with me." Guilt showed clearly on his face as he blinked back tears.

Jack was concerned, Daniel was his best friend after all, but- "Daniel, we need to find Chris and his mother-

"Willow," Daniel stated immediately.

Jack gave him a surprised look, "Daniel?"

Daniel took a deep breath, "Willow's the woman I slept with."

Jack blinked with momentary shock and then exclaimed, "What?!" What other surprises did Daniel have?

In the time it took for Jack to snap out of his short-term surprise and to ask the question Sam had already started guessing why Daniel had been stunned into silence, she shook her head slightly as she soaked up that information like a sponge soaking up water.

As Daniel was about to talk Sam cut in, "Daniel, Chris is four years old- right?" he nodded and already knew that she'd found out about Chris and Willow, he rose from the sofa and went to the small pile of photos, he grabbed one with Chris and the one with Willow and Tara.

"Look at the dates," he gave them a meaningful look. "They're too accurate to be a coincidence, and look at Willow and Tara, they looked like Sha're and I when we lived on Abydos, Chris can't be anyone else's kid."

"This is a lot more than a coincidence," agreed Jack as he took the photo of Chris from him. "The kid even has glasses and blue eyes."

Daniel looked at Jack, "We have to get them back!" What if the NID were already experimenting on them?

It was Teal'c who spoke, "We will find them Daniel Jackson, but if we are to bring them back alive and well I suggest we take action now."

Daniel tried to push down his frustration, "We can't do anything! We don't know where those people took them, we don't even know why!"

Okay, so trying to suppress his emotions was obviously futile.

Jack stood in front of him and grabbed his shoulders, "We'll get them back, the General's working on it. We'll get them both back I promise."

Jack was as stubborn as hell, he'd learned that over the years of being best friends. Daniel knew the Jack would try his best to live up to that promise just as he had when he'd promised to save Sha're.

Daniel never held his wife's death against Jack, the man had tried his best and knew that this time and as he looked into the eyes of his best friend he would try just as hard. Daniel looked at his team mates and knew that they'd all try to bring Willow and their son back.

"We've been in worse situations than this, Danny," Jack said. "We always figure it out in the end."

The archaeologist nodded, the NID had messed with them many times. But this time they'd gone too far.

Back at the SGC

General George Hammond sat at his desk and read through the files of a group of kids that reminded him of SG1. He'd known the details of the 'Scooby Gang' for several years and the supernatural just as long.  
He'd been stunned and speechless when he'd found out about the supernatural and also angered when he'd found out that a rather small group of children were the first line of defense against the forces of darkness.

Hammond had wanted to relieve them of their fight and tell them to go back to college or get a job that actually pays them.

Unfortunately, the President had informed him that attempts had been made by the military to take over the fight but had screwed up big time. The Scooby Gang had had to risk their own lives to save the soldiers and the scientists that worked in the 'Initiative'.

Apparently one of the people named Maggie Walsh ended up being a crazy scientist trying to build a demon/man/machine hybrid army to take over the world.

Looking at the photo of the monster Hammond shook his head disbelievingly.

"ADAM, he looks like something out of a 'Frankenstein' movie!"

When he had looked at how much damage the military had done in the fight he realized that it would just be better to leave the fight to the professionals and President Hayes had agreed with him.

These files were classified and strictly on a "need to know" basis which meant that SG1 hadn't needed to know at the time and weren't told.

Hammond picked up the receiver of the big red phone as it started ringing and held it to his ear.

"George, I'm afraid we've had trouble locating Miss Rosenberg and her son," said the President. "I think now might be the time to inform the Scooby Gang of the kidnapping, they have other means of finding people."

Hammond sighed and rubbed his bald scalp tiredly, "Yes, Mr. President." 

When the Scooby Gang found out that two of their own had been taken there would be hell to pay, they were as close as SG1 were. Hammond had no pity for Kinsey or the NID for what was going to happen to them and if SG1 all got involved in the ordeal…

Hammond's lips twitched upwards.

…all the better.

"Miss Rosenberg's friends' numbers will most likely be at her house," said Hammond. "I'll notify Mr. Giles of their disappearance when I know how to contact them."

"Good idea, George," agreed the President. "Hopefully this will be the end of Kinsey and the NID, although I won't be surprised if they manage to slither their way out of trouble again."

Hammond nodded, he wouldn't be surprised either. "I'll notify SG1 at once."

"Oh and Mr. President?" continued Hammond. "I think that SG1 need to know about the supernatural now, knowing them they'll find out sooner or later."

After persuading the President to let him tell SG1 about the 'Initiative' project Hammond hung up the phone and then dialled O'Neill's cell phone number, he needed to find out Mr. Giles's phone number.


	9. Chapter 9

Sudden changes chapter nine

Daniel put the photo of Willow and Chris into his pocket and ran a hand through his hair warily, he resisted the urge to wring his hands as he continued pacing around the house with anxiety. He had a son, a four year old son.

He growled, a son that was probably awake and scared with those bastards, was he with his mom? Maybe he was by himself. Daniel gritted his teeth; were they sticking needles in him?

The archaeologist balled his hands into fists and punched the wall just as his best friend's cell phone rang, he breathed in deeply trying to stay calm; he couldn't help either of the two hostages if he was punching walls, he looked at Jack who was holding his cell to his right ear.

Daniel scooted over to the colonel quickly hoping to hear some of the conversation, it was probably the General; did he have any news on Willow and Chris? He hoped so.

He barely noticed Teal'c and Sam coming towards them as Jack frowned, his anxiety jumped up several notches and he began panicking, was it bad news? He clenched and unclenched his hands rapidly. What if they never found them?

"Are you sure, sir?" said Jack frowning.

Whatever the General was telling him to do he obviously didn't like it, was it bad?

"Yes, sir," he took the phone away from his ear and mouth and said, "We need to find Willow's contact numbers, the Pr—"

Carter interrupted him as she held up an A5 sized book presumably full of phone numbers, "Got it, sir."

Jack nodded, "Carter's got the contacts, sir."

Daniel was confused, Why would they need Willow's phone numbers? The only reason why they'd need them was if the General wanted to contact her friends, but what good would that do? What could they do to help? Anyway, last time he'd checked this was classified, none of them even knew Willow's friends.

He knew that he wasn't the only one in this room who was confused, he looked at Sam; her eyebrows were knitted together slightly, her eyes narrowed a little in confusion. Teal'c was, um, Teal'c; so not much change in his expression.

"General, if you don't mind me asking—" he paused and then sighed after a few seconds. "Yes, sir."

He ended the call and then looked at them, but his eyes lingered on Daniel, "We're going back to the mountain, General's orders."

Daniel's eyes widened, "What?! We can't! Jack—"

Jack interrupted him, "Hammond has information on Willow and Chris that will help us find them. We'll have more of a chance of getting them back if we leave, there's not much we can do here."

Usually Jack would've just told Daniel to shut up and order him out, but he deserved more than that; his kid was missing, granted he only knew about the kid for barely a few hours but still—

Daniel nodded stiffly, "What kind of information, Jack?"

Jack frowned, "I don't know, but he said it was important." Hammond wouldn't have said that the info was important if it wasn't.

Sam put a hand on Daniel's arm, "We'll find Willow and Chris, but I doubt the answer's in this house." After a moment he nodded not looking happy.

They made their way out of the house, Sam was flicking through the address book and vaguely noted that most of the names in the book were…odd.

'Xander, Buffy, Giles, Clem…'

Strange, she shook her head slightly willing away the inappropriate thoughts, they had more important things to think about.

Before she shut the book she saw the contact, 'Magic Box', Sam raised an eyebrow. Magic? Odd.

She closed the book and hurried a little to catch up with the guys, she'd fallen behind. They walked back to their means of transport in a tense silence.

Meanwhile with the NID Agents

Agent Grey glanced at the woman lying flat on her stomach as he heard her stirring groggily, he frowned worriedly and turned to one of the other agents, "This one's starting to wake up." He stopped himself from wincing at the quaver in his voice. The woman had kicked their asses all across the house, so yeah he was cautious; anyone else would be if they were within two feet of her like he was.

Agent Holland, who was at least a decade older than him, gave him a scathing look as he heard the fear in his voice, "Give her another shot." The older man handed him a syringe impatiently. Grey took it blushing furiously and then grasped the redhead's left arm firmly before glancing at her face to see if she was awake.

He gulped as he saw that her eyes were half-open, but he calmed down slightly when he saw that she was still groggy and confused.

He grasped the syringe firmer than before and pierced the skin on her arm carefully, he looked back up to her face quickly while slowly releasing the sedative into her bloodstream; as the last of the drug was released he was blown backwards violently and had the air blown out of his lungs as he hit the inside of the vehicle.

Willow struggled to pull herself up by her elbows but discovered that her hands were bound together behind her back, a blurry kind of anger swirled around inside her and had been since she'd seen and felt the prick of the needle in her arm; she didn't know what was going on but being poked with needles wasn't something she thought was good. The redhead gritted her teeth and tried furiously to concentrate against the fuzziness in her mind. She could feel herself growing weaker and her vision blurred and darkened as she vaguely heard yelling and felt hands pushing her back down onto the hard surface of the van floor.

Her right cheek pressed against the cold floor, she struggled to keep her eyes open; she caught sight of a small figure lying not three feet away from her and obviously bound as tightly as she was and frowned. Her eyes drooped and closed.

She knew nothing more as she passed out once again.

Back at the jet

Jack sat back in his seat in the private jet as he held the cell phone to his ear with one hand and held the address book open with the other, he was giving Hammond the number of this 'Giles' guy; whoever this guy was he hoped that he could help; although he didn't know exactly how a civilian could help in any way. But this was George Hammond, he hadn't led them wrong before.

Sam was checking into Willow's background on her laptop trying to stop the constant thought of wondering what the two hostages were going through and also to find information about them, Daniel was sitting and was very quiet as he put the photograph back into his pocket for the third time that day, he was probably wondering how anyone could kidnap a small boy and a young mother without any remorse.

Daniel met his eyes silently and Jack, who had just ended the call on his cell phone, wasn't surprised to see the depths of anger that burned in the archaeologist's blue iris's, they both knew that Kinsey wasn't going to get out of this unharmed.

Karma was going to turn around a take a chunk right out of the bastard's slimy ass, and he hoped that they'd all be around to see it.

He felt the jet rising up and off the ground as they left for Cheyenne Mountain.


	10. Chapter 10

Sudden changes chapter ten

Jack and his team sat down at the long table in the briefing room, the General was seated at his desk with a folder in front of him; they noticed that there were four more folders, presumably for them, ready for them to read.

They took their seats and looked at Hammond expectantly, Jack spoke up first.

"So General, what's the news?" he asked wanting to know why the General wanted the phone numbers of Rosenberg's friends.

"The President and I have decided to reveal certain information about Miss Rosenberg and her friends," Hammond informed. "They will have a better chance at finding Miss Rosenberg and her son, which is why I need the contacts."

Sam Carter gave the book to Daniel who in turn gave it to the General, he looked at the book for a few moments before closing it, taking a deep breath and letting it out. Hammond knew that SG1 would need some time to deal with the knowledge of yet another threat to Earth but they didn't have the time, neither did the two hostages.

"Eight years ago a classified Army program called 'The Initiative' was made, the program's purpose was to find and capture what we called 'Sub-terrestrials or what Miss Rosenberg and her friends called 'the Supernatural'."

"What?!" Jack exclaimed in surprise. Was the General insane?

"Sir, with all due respect I have to disagree with you, science has dis-" started Sam immediately as the scientist in her rebelled again the idea.

The supernatural didn't exist, it wasn't possible.

"I have proof, Major Carter," he said silencing her. "And I can assure you that what I'm telling you is the complete truth, from the President himself I might add."

Sam looked at her CO in puzzlement, he gave her an equally perplexed look.

But then why would a military project be made especially to catch things that didn't even exist? Jack didn't know. The 'Initiative' obviously wasn't successful in doing their job if it couldn't be done.

"And the project was a failure, right?" asked Jack. "I mean the Supernatural doesn't exist so their objective wasn't achieved."

The General sighed, "On the contrary, Colonel, the mission was going successfully for a long time." He knew it would take a long time to convince them of this information, so he gestured to the folders in front of them,

"There were also experiments made on the…um…hostiles," he continued. "The outcome of the experiments was grim to say the least."

Jack wondered if the NID were involved in this; he wouldn't be surprised if they were.

"The leader of the project was killed by an experiment that she had worked on without the knowledge of her superiors, she created a being from parts of human, demon and machine that she named ADAM."

Jack looked at the picture of ADAM and looked disgusted, "She 'named' that thing?!"

Hammond nodded grimly, "ADAM eventually woke up and the leader was killed, the creature escaped the base and rampaged around Sunnydale killing god knows how many people before a small group of demon-fighting teenagers finally stopped it for good."

Daniel couldn't stop the gasp he made as he looked at the pictures in the folder. A familiar face looked up at him from the picture, "Willow," he said stunned.

"Yes, the uh…witch of the group," informed Hammond. "She was a nineteen year old college student who fought demons."

"And her friends?" asked Daniel looking pale.

"A 'Slayer' Buffy Summers, a normal human 'Xander Harris' and an older man who they refer to as 'Giles'," the Texan informed.

Willow was a witch? Was Chris a witch too? That would be an obvious explanation as to why the NID had kidnapped them both.

"There's a possibility that Miss Rosenberg's son might also have similar abilities," said Hammond.

Sam still couldn't quite believe this, the scientist in her was aching to disprove all this information. But they didn't have the time, her 'little brother's' son was out there and so was the mother of the said child. They were more important than her need to rule out the possibility of the Supernatural.

"Needless to say," concluded General Hammond. "The project was shut down permanently and the fight was, in the President's own words, 'best left to the professionals."

Jack rubbed his tired brown eyes wearily, "The 'professionals' of course being little more than children."

Hammond nodded in agreement, "I felt the same way after I found out, Colonel."

"These 'children' as you called them risked their lives to save the men and woman of that facility and stopped the abomination created by that woman," Hammond continued. "Aside from that fact they have also saved the world as many times, if not more, than your team has."

Eyebrows rose at that, Daniel took his glasses of and said, "Woah, uh, 'saved the world'?" How could they have missed all this? It was happening right under their very noses. The irony was not lost on either of the people in the room.

Hammond grimaced slightly, "Miss Rosenberg's home town is a small town in California, barely a blip on the radar, called Sunnydale. The demon-fighters referred to the place as 'the mouth of Hell' and that is exactly what the place is; a gateway to Hell itself. Many demons and other Supernatural beings have tried to open the gateway and it goes without saying that that wouldn't be good for anyone."

Jack felt a headache coming on right behind his eyes, "Great, we got DEMONS now! As if the ever-annoying snake-heads aren't enough." Was there a even a slight possibility that that the General and the President plus the Army- nah, that's impossible there's no way that THAT many people could be insane. So much for wishful thinking.

Daniel jumped in impatiently, "General, how are we going to find Willow and Chris if we're in here doing nothing?!" How much time had they wasted? Willow and Chris were in danger and he was sitting on his ass with no way of finding them. Tara had said-

The General was saying something to him but he wasn't listening, why didn't he tell SG1 about the dream? About Tara?

"Daniel?" Jack waved a hand in front of the archaeologist's face. "Earth to Daniel."

"Tara," he said abruptly. "Willow's dead girlfriend…I uh dreamt about her…she was in my dream." Tara was really there, she existed albeit dead but she was a person who just happened to enter his dream to talk to him, to warn him-

"Daniel, what are you talking about?" asked Jack looking confused. How do you dream about a person who's real but a person you've never seen before? Oh right, this was a Hellmouth they were talking about, weirdness was overflowing here.

"Willow's dead girlfriend, Tara, talked to me," he said. "She said that the NID had planned to use Chris as a weapon against the Goa'uld, and that Willow would lose control again…but 'lose control' of what exactly?"

The General went pale, "Dr Jackson, if what you're saying is true-

"It is," Daniel reassured quickly, eyes wide and intense. What did the General know?

The General swallowed hard, "Information was sent to the President about five years ago about Miss Rosenberg and the recent death of her girlfriend, Tara Maclay. Footage was shown of Miss Rosenberg after her girlfriend's murder." He sighed. "It wasn't good, neither was she for a while."

"On the footage Miss Rosenberg looked every bit of the evil that she and her friends had been fighting, she completely ransacked the town presumably looking for the murderer responsible for Miss Maclay's death. It seemed that Miss Rosenberg had lost control of her magic and well...the suspect of the murder hasn't been seen since."

Jack covered his face with his hands, migraine being a pain in the- head, and muttered, "Oy." How many other surprises would they have to deal with? Willow was on their side again, right?

Sam shook her head slightly, "So, you're saying that Willow could lose control again?" of course she would, her son was in danger, the results wouldn't be pretty.

"Her girlfriend was murdered and the murderer hasn't been seen since," said Jack. "We all know where that SOB is now- how much angrier will she be if Chris gets hurt?"

Daniel frowned, "She'll lose control again, just like last time."

The General stood up, "Hopefully it won't come to that, now I've got to make some calls." Hopefully the witch's friends will be able to handle this.

Then he looked confused, "Dr Jackson, is there any particular reason why Tara Maclay would warn you?" He was glad that he'd already known of the Supernatural before this discussion, he wouldn't have been able to believe this otherwise.

Daniel looked at Jack questioningly, should he tell Hammond? Jack nodded.

He pulled the photo of Willow and Chris out of his pocket and gave it to the General, "Look at the dates on the back…

Meanwhile in Sunnydale a few hours later

Buffy bunched up her fists before raising them and punching the big, padded bag hanging from the ceiling in the training area which was situated in the basement of the Magic Box, which had been rebuilt by Xander and his buddies from the construction business over three years ago. Giles and Anya were the store owners just like they were before Giles went back to England six years previous only to return when Willow had gone off the deep end.

The blonde Slayer smiled contentedly as she remembered Xander's beaming grin almost two years ago when he and Anya had decided to give their relationship another go; after promising his girlfriend that he'd tell her if he was having second thoughts about the relationship they had slowly and steadily grew to trust one and other again. Anya knew the reason why Xander had freaked out on their wedding five years ago; that the trauma of his abusive childhood hadn't left him and that he was afraid that he'd hurt Anya and become like his father.

After years of therapy from a friendly psychologist and support from his friends he'd started to trust himself and break free from his parents and the shadows of his former life with them; he was still visiting the psychologist quite frequently.

After four years of therapy Xander had waited for the right moment to pop 'the question' and yesterday they had both announced that they were getting married, grinned again at the memory and bounced on her toes before taking another swing at the punch bag. Then she frowned, she hadn't been able to tell Willow and Chris about the news, she'd phoned them a few hours ago but no one answered; maybe they were out doing something.

She turned to Giles who was watching her beat up the bag and said, "I'm going to phone Will again." Hopefully this time she'll answer or Buffy would really start worrying. After her mentor nodded she jogged up the steps to the door out of the training room.

She closed the door behind her and made a beeline for the phone and was surprised to see Xander already holding the receiver and was obviously about to dial the phone number; he saw her, "Will still hasn't answered the phone." The worry was written all over his face, in his eyes as well as his voice as he stood near Anya who was on the other side of the counter and looking through the money; though her blue eyes were flickering over to them quite a lot in concern.

The dark-haired man put the receiver back down not finishing the sequence of numbers, "She could just be out, I hope she's just out- maybe we should call Clem." Or maybe Spike though he wouldn't bet on him being home.

He was about to grab the receiver to call Clem when she phone rang loudly, he grinned in relief, "See, she's fine." That had to be his best friend on the other end of the line.

He picked it up and said, "Hey Will, where've you been-

Then he frowned in confusion, he turned to Buffy, "It's the President," gaping slightly in shock he listened.

Buffy's eyebrows were in danger of disappearing into her hairline, "The President?" What would the President want with them?

"Willow…what are you talking about?" he asked.

Buffy moved closer to Xander and so did Anya, what was going on?

"What-" he muttered in disbelief. "We talked to her a few days ago, how could-

"Military? It's the Initiative isn't it?" he growled angrily. "Why do you people always mess with stuff you don't understand!?" The President had just told him that a group of soldiers had kidnapped Willow and Chris, the soldiers were given the orders by an organization close to the Military.

"So no one knows where they are?" he asked looking increasingly upset. "Oh we'll find them, then there's going to be hell to pay."

He slammed the phone down and ignored his fiancé and friend's curious and worried looks, "Willow and Chris have been kidnapped by the Military, the President and the 'good-guys' of the military can't find them."

"I'll set up the locator spell," said Giles making them jump. "We'll find them."

Buffy nodded stiffly, how long had Willow and Chris been with those bastards? If they hurt a hair on either of their heads the military would never find all the body parts.

"I can't believe the Military would be stupid enough to get involved in this again," snarled Buffy lividly.

"What if Willow and Chris are really hurt?" said Xander quietly.

"If they are," started the Slayer. "Then whoever's behind this will wish they'd never existed."


	11. Chapter 11

Sudden changes chapter 11

The Agents traipsed down the halls of the base pushing the gurneys as they went, the two unconscious prisoners were unbound but handcuffed to the rails of the trolleys they were on. They were told to keep them both sedated or at least partly- as long as the prisoners couldn't fully concentrate the kidnappers were less likely to be attacked by them and Willow and Chris would be easily contained.

They'd only just got into their base and they were now taking the subjects to separate holding cells until they notified their CO of the successful outcome of their objective.

Agent Grey was sporting a lump the size of Texas at the back of his head and was alternating between scowling at the unconscious redheaded woman and wincing while rubbing the injury, Agent Holland gave him a disgusted look and said, "Quit the internal bitchin' will ya?"

Grey scowled at him as the man walked passed him at a faster pace.

Agent Mitchell nudged his shoulder, "Come into contact with the witch-bitch too?" the twenty-something year old had a bloody nose and was holding his arm to his side.

"How'd ya guess?" Grey replied darkly. "Uh…'witch'?"

Mitchell shrugged, "Just a name, but come on- her hair and eyes were all black…that was no normal Telekinesis." At least he didn't think it was.

"So, what do you think she is, then?" asked another Agent falling into step beside them. "Some sorta…alien?"

"That's why our superiors wanted us to grab them," replied Grey with certainty. "To find out and rule out any threat to the public."

Agent Holland had obviously been eavesdropping on their conversation for he gave a derisive snort and said, "Yeah, right." Grey was SO naïve! Whether or not those two were a threat didn't mean shit to their superiors or to him for that matter; he didn't care what the bitch or her kid was as long as they weren't running around free.

Grey frowned slightly, then he shook his head, Holland was lying- just full of shit and all that. If the woman and her kid weren't a threat to society then there would be no reason to keep them around.

But as he looked at the sly smirk on Holland's face he felt a flicker of doubt, his superiors weren't like that- right?

Back in Sunnydale, Summers' residence

Buffy frowned slightly and turned back to Giles, "Giles, I don't-

"I know what you're going to say, Buffy," The former-Watcher interrupted her. "But we should let her make this decision."

She immediately repented, "You're right, I guess I just want her to get this too much." She knew that her baby sister would come running the moment she heard that Will and Chris were in trouble but it was right in the middle of her exams; they could have used someone else but they didn't have enough time to call the LA Gang.

Actually, thinking about it she didn't think they could use anyone else. Beside Giles, Chris and Willow Dawn was the only one with any sort of magical talent. To be on the safe side it would probably be better if Dawn was present.

Buffy looked around her kitchen vaguely while Giles cleaned his glasses.

Dawnie was also studying to become a Nurse as well as working on her magical skills, which weren't as powerful as Willow's but made her a formidable opponent again demons, she was currently working at her exams so that she could pass to go onto the forth year, she was doing extremely well but Buffy knew that the pressure was starting to get to her. Though knowing Dawn she'd feel even worse if part of her family went missing and she didn't help.

Hence the repent.

"I call her," said Buffy and went off to find the phone.

Sunnydale Medical School

Dawn chewed her bottom lip anxiously, tucking strands of brown hair that fell out of her pony tail behind her ear; blue eyes flitted around the room which was occupied by about thirty other students like her.

She wiped her sweaty hands on her jeans and shook her head sheepishly; it was only an examination. A written one at that. Sheesh, give her an Apocalypse and she was fine, give her an exam like this and she was practically a nervous wreck.

It must be a 'Scooby' thing.

She breathed in deeply and the exhaled to get herself to relax, her friends had said that she'd be fine. She was bright. She could do this.

She groaned, "Give me an Apocalypse. Anything but this."

She heard her phone 'beep' and she gulped, she was supposed to turn the cell phone off before she got into the exam room. Oh well, she still had time to do that after she answered the call.

The brunette dug through her pocket and withdrew a small cell phone, she looked at it. Buffy. She flicked it open while cursing in her mind, Why did I open my big mouth?! It had to be an apocalypse; there wasn't any other reason she could think of that would make her sister phone her in the middle of an exam.

"Buffy?" she said cautiously. She listened carefully to what her sister was saying. "What?!" What the hell were the Military thinking? And why did she have to open her big mouth?! If Chris got hurt it really would be an Apocalypse; the worst kind of apocalypse was one that was made by one of your own. Willow. She was gonna be so pissed!

"I'm coming," she decided immediately. No way was she not going to be there to help them.

She just had to explain to the professors why she had to leave right before her exams.

At the SGC

Daniel paced around the briefing room restlessly, he didn't want to be here; "Can't we be doing something a little more practical than just sitting on our asses?" he asked desperately.

Hammond sighed, "I wish we could, Dr Jackson, but aside from the fact that we have no idea where to start looking for them…well, that's just it, they could be anywhere."

Jack agreed silently, "The President should be phoning in with their location at any time now, right?"

Daniel started getting agitated again and clenched his fists to stop himself from waving them around, "How do we even know that Willow's friends would tell us their location…they HATE the military?!"

Hammond nodded, "While you do have a valid point I am quite sure that once we tell them of your relation to Miss Rosenberg and your son they will cease to be suspicious of our motives."

There was a little doubt lacing the General's words as he said this, but Daniel knew that no one could be sure what would happen in the following hours or even days.

So, he nodded unconvincingly and resumed his pacing.

"What is the President doing now to help us find them?" asked Jack as he swung his chair from side to side restlessly.

"The President is trying to contact Senator Kinsey for an answer as to the whereabouts of Miss Rosenberg and the boy," the Texan massaged his temples as if trying to ward off a headache. "Though, I wouldn't hold my breath."

Sam spoke up suddenly, "To be quite honest, sirs, I'm just glad that Willow's friends don't suspect us of being in the same boat as Kinsey."

"You hope," remarked Jack seriously. For all they knew the 'Scooby Gang' were planning to infiltrate the entire base as they were speaking.

The archaeologist picked up a file absentmindedly and said, "Jack, if they think we're responsible we'd have no chance of making it to our next birthdays."

No, they wouldn't have a chance in Hell.

Back at Summers' Residence

The door bell rang, Buffy ran out of the lounge and almost ripped the door clean off the hinges in her haste; she took one look at her baby sister before hugging her tightly.

"Ow," complained the twenty-one year old. "Slayer strength, Buffy."

After apologizing vaguely she pulled the brunette inside the house, it was time to find their friends.


	12. Chapter 12

Sudden changes chapter 12

Agent Duncan Grey sat at a table in the mess hall chewing a bite of his cheese sandwich while deep in thought, his mind was focused on the two 'hostiles' that had been brought in a while ago. He didn't see what reason his superiors had for bringing them in and holding them in cells, they hadn't done anything that wasn't provoked, maybe his superiors knew something he didn't; was there a good reason for kidnapping them?

Maybe it was because of their powers, but so what; that didn't necessarily make them a threat. Unless they were like Carrie White in that 'Stephen King' film, "Could be," he murmured under his breath.

"Come again?"

Duncan looked up from his lunch and found Agent Serena Ryan raising her black eyebrows at him in bemusement, maybe he hadn't said that as quietly as he'd thought. "Uh, well…" he trailed off looking embarrassed. "You heard of those new….hostiles, right?"

Serena nodded, shoving some mashed potatoes in her mouth, "Mmhm."

"Our superiors are going to let them go if they aren't a threat, right?" he queried. He hoped so.

The raven-haired woman shrugged swallowing her mouthful of food, "Dunno." She looked at him thoughtfully, dark blue eyes slightly unfocussed, "It's not your place to question, we just do what we're told just like we were trained to do. You know that."

The brown-haired man sighed and nodded, "Yeah, I guess."

Serena pushed some carrots around on her plate thoughtfully, 'Why would her superiors take a little boy? The mother, maybe…but a little boy?' she shook her head and pushed the thoughts out of her mind. Maybe she was spending too much time with Agent Grey, he was her friend after all; but she had just questioned her SO, damn.

Suddenly, she wasn't hungry anymore, she stood up abruptly making Agent Grey look up in surprise, "I'm going back to the barracks, lost my appetite," she muttered.

Duncan's eyes followed her until she was out of the room, "What's up with her?" he jumped in shock when a hand clamped down on his shoulder; he looked up to see another Agent he wasn't familiar with staring at him looking amused.

"First sign of insanity," joked the man smirking slightly. "Talking to yourself." He gave Duncan a pointed look and walked away.

Duncan turned back to his plate which held the other half of his cheese sandwich and snickered, "He's not wrong." Maybe he was going nuts; why else would he be questioning his SO? He shouldn't be…but, why WOULD they want to take the boy and the woman? He couldn't think of any REAL explanation.

The SGC

"Daniel!" snapped Colonel O'Neill in frustration. "Will you…sit down?"

Daniel turned in his direction and glared at him angrily, though his anger was directed at the NID and at Kinsey; not Jack, "No! God…the NID are making fucking LAB-RATS out of Willow and Chris right about now, how can I?!"

A pained look came over Jack's face as he rubbed his left temple with his fingers, "You've been going nuts over this for hours, Daniel-

The archaeologist's cheeks burned almost red, his eyes lit up and then seemed to darken, "WELL, WHAT DO YOU EXPECT?! Chris and Willow have been with those bastards for HOURS, too long! They-

"Daniel! Will you listen to me!?" snapped Jack looking frustrated. "I know you're going nuts over this- and you should be; but you should calm down…you'll be no help to anybody if you're dog-tired by the time we get to them."

The two friends glared at one and other for a moment before the civilian of the two looked away and struggled to get his temper fully under his control, he glared at the table beside him, "I can't calm down because every time I think about those SOBs and what they're doing to them I wanna kill someone- mainly Kinsey."

Jack sighed and scratched his head, "You know, I never thought I'd ever say this but…you should work on that translation you brought back around yesterday." Daniel gave him a strange look. "It'll help you take your mind off things, plus it looks…interesting."

Daniel snorted and then considered this, then shook his head, "Jack, I have to help find-

"Daniel, you can't do anything right now," said Jack. "At the moment we're waiting for the President and the…uh, 'Scoobies' to phone back the President. Besides, the General is on the phone to the 'Scooby Gang' we just have to wait"

"I hate waiting," muttered the archaeologist miserably.

Jack grasped his friend's shoulder, "We have to, if we confront that group directly…they don't trust us, it would be a bad idea."

"So, I should work on that translation," Daniel said.

Jack nodded.

He looked at his best friend, "'kay."

Daniel made his way tiredly out of the room.

Summers' Residence 2 hours later

Buffy shook with rage as she stomped through the house towards the lounge, "Those lying pieces of shit!"

Giles followed her looking as angry as she did, "We should have known, trusting the military…still, I didn't expect the President to…"

The blonde spun around suddenly to face him, "What did you expect, just 'cause the President's different from the last doesn't mean that he'll leave us alone- the other one before him didn't."

"I know."

Xander, who was already sitting down, asked, "So, what're we going to do?" personally his hands were itching to get around the kidnappers' throats.

"Yeah, what're we gonna do?" asked Dawn, who was looking at her sister. They had gotten a phone call from General Hammond, two hours ago, offering help to find Willow and Chris, they had accepted it with suspicion and now it seemed that their distrust was warranted; The locator spell said that the two missing Scooby members resided in Colorado Springs, which was 'funny' because the General had said that the kidnappers weren't in their area.

Buffy clenched her hands and breathed deeply in a bid to try to clam down, it didn't work, "We go to Colorado Springs, and we give this General and his little friends hell."

"Where's the General?" asked Xander getting up from the couch.

"Dawn did some hacking work on this guy," said Buffy glancing at her sister. "He's the leader of a military base in Cheyenne Mountain."

NID Base

Scientist John Shaw had gotten the blood tests results back from the lab, the subject was the boy with powers, the one that came in with the young woman. The boy was one-hundred percent human, which was odd because humans couldn't do what this boy could do. Very odd, but intriguing; he wondered what made this boy do what he could do. This warranted more tests, he was excited to find out if they could use something from the subject's blood to create a weapon that his superiors could use; still if there was nothing in the blood they could use they would just have to find another way of harnessing the subject's powers.

After all powers of this level shouldn't be wasted, they would be used.

John walked over to the subject's semi-conscious form which lay on the cold, hard steel table. He picked up a syringe from the metal tray beside the table and cleaned the part on the subject's pale, slightly freckled arm before slowly plunging the thin, sharp needle into him to draw out more blood for testing.

He looked at the subject's face and saw that he was still more than a little out of it, John could see him wince as the needle went in so there was obviously a certain level of consciousness that the subject had after they'd drugged him. He wondered if he knew what was happening to him.

As he pulled out the blood-filled needle the phone behind him started ringing, he placed the instrument back into the tray and pulled the latex gloves off his hands before picking the receiver up, "Doctor Shaw's lab."

He listened to the person and nodded, "Right, um…what kind of tests are we now talking about?" he nodded again.

"Isn't that a little dangerous?" he asked concerned. He swallowed, "Right, sorry sir. I'll bring him as soon as possible."

He hung up and frowned.


	13. Chapter 13

Sudden changes chapter 13

The SGC

Daniel sipped at his coffee while looking at the translations, so far he hadn't had much luck; he was beginning to think he'd never find out what the tablet was about. On any other occasion it would cause him to become rather frustrated but this time he couldn't bring himself to give a monkey's ass.

He placed his coffee back down on the table and went on reading it…or at least trying to.

He was pretty sure it was a dead language that even he hadn't ever come across before; Daniel sighed in exasperation and felt absolutely exhausted mentally and physically, he put his head in his hands after taking his glasses off and rubbed his face to stop his eyes aching; it didn't work.

It was just a stupid translation, why did it have to be harder than any other he'd finished before this?

The archaeologist's left hand slowly fell away from its place from under his chin and landed softly on his desk, his thoughts started drifting around his head as he lost control of them while starting to drift of to sleep.

Maybe it didn't mean anything; maybe it was just a huge intergalactic waste of time.

Daniel yawned freely and his eyes started watering immediately as his chin started sliding from his palm and further down his wrist until it was resting on the fingers of his left hand; the right one slowly lowered to the desk's surface and moved under the other arm as he unconsciously crossed his arms for his head to rest on.

The exhaustion resulting from no sleep for the last twenty-three hours overcame the bespectacled man as he lost consciousness.

Airport Terminal- several hours later

When the person over the PA announced that their plane was ready Buffy leapt up from the bench that she and her friends were sitting on, "It's about damn time!" she growled irritably.

Dawn and Xander manhandled their backpacks on to their shoulders quickly before making their way to the plane; they dodged a couple of idiotic people who, if the demon fighters hadn't moved quickly out of their way, would have collided with them.

Dawn looked over her shoulder to glare at the offending people's backs only to stop suddenly in shock when she caught sight of a familiar, if flabby, face. "Clem!?"

Buffy span around as her sister had shouted and saw Clem running up to them; she walked over to stand next to the former-Key as the benevolent demon stopped in front of them. "Clem, what're you doing here?"

Clem's ears flapped a little, "What do you think? Chrissy and Willow aren't at home anymore, I think that something's happened to them. Then my kitten-poker friends said something about a group of soldier taking them from the house early in the morn-

Buffy interrupted, "Yeah, that's what happened."

"And why we're going to Colorado Springs," Dawn pitched in. "That's where the kidnappers have taken them."

Clem shook his head, ears flapping again, "Why would they do that?" he asked in disbelief.

The Slayer shrugged looking a little impatient, "We know why but I'll explain later when we bring them back."

The demon nodded, "I wish I could help."

Dawn patted him on the shoulder comfortingly, though slightly distracted, "You'll be the first to know when we get them back, okay?"

The demon smiled, "Thanks. Good luck, and uh…kick the kidnappers' butts in!"

Buffy grinned maliciously, "Don't worry, I'm planning on that and more."

The Scoobies silently agreed, well all except Anya who said, "If I were still a vengeance demon I'd infect their penises with-

"Ahn!" Xander exclaimed looking a little embarrassed. Even Buffy was looking a little pink in the face as some of the people around them stared in shock and amusement.

"What?" Anya shrugged looking slightly confused. "I thought we were baying for blood here."

Xander nodded, "We are."

"So then what's the problem?" she asked.

Xander sighed and said, "Never mind."

Clem nodded dubiously, and said, "Well, I should go."

"We should too, want to get our seats asap," said Dawn noncommittally.

Clem and the Scooby gang parted ways after that, wanting to get their friends back as soon as they could.

Daniel's Dream

Daniel looked around at the suddenly-new scenery that surrounded him and raised his eyebrows questioningly, "Uh…oookkaay."

His blue eyes darted around the room, which was obviously a rather small library, and saw a pair of double-doors. He walked over to them and looked through the vertical, rectangular glass windows curiously. He frowned, "This is a school?"

What was he doing in a school library?

He turned around to look at the stacks on the second floor and walked towards the wooden stairs while passing the huge wooden tables on the way there; suddenly he stopped in confusion and looked over his shoulder to see that a crossbow was lying almost innocently on the surface of the table.

Why would a crossbow be in a school library? He also noted that there was a large cage for some odd reason.

The archaeologist shook his head in bemusement, "Weird."

"No kidding!" piped up an enthusiastic voice behind him. Daniel jumped in shock and spun around to face a teenage boy wearing a slightly goofy grin.

"Uh," stuttered Daniel hesitantly. "Hi?"

"Howdy," the boy gave him the once over and smirked. "You are so lucky you're you."

The older man blinked looking confused, "Uh…huh?"

The boy shrugged and stuck his hands in his pockets, "Well, if the Slayer does get to know you then she shouldn't be too pissed off."

He still didn't get it.

The boy's brown eyes rolled upwards in mock exasperation, "You knocked up the Slayers' best bud; you gotta be a saint to stop her from lynching you…then there's the rest of their little group."

Daniel interest jumped up several notches, "You're talking about Willow?"

The boy just smiled and scratched his scalp; messing up his light brown hair slightly, "You wanna find the answers? Find the warriors of the Powers and you'll get all the answers you want and need."

"Ookay, Tara did this dream-thingy a while ago…who're you?" asked the archaeologist.

The brunette just looked at him, "You'd better watch your backs, the warriors…they think they know but they don't, you need to set them straight before it's too late."

Daniel sighed, "What is it with you higher beings and being cryptic?"

The boy chuckled, "Hey, I wasn't like this when I was alive, believe me!"

"Daniel?"

"What?" the boy's voice sounded different but familiar.

"Daniel, wake up!"

The boy looked up exasperatedly then looked at Daniel, "The last thing you were trying to find the answers to…. the warriors will work it out, it wasn't written by YOUR enemy."

The boy's wide eyes were locked on his looking meaningful, like he was trying to tell him something but couldn't say.

"Danny, wakey wakey!" there was that voice again.

Something was gripping his right shoulder and was shaking him slightly.

End Daniel's Dream

"Daniel!"

Daniel blinked his sleepy eyes rapidly to clear his vision, it cleared partially, "Glasses?" he sat up in his chair wincing as his neck started aching.

Jack handed him his specs and said, "Sorry Danny, Willow's friends haven't called us back; they obviously don't trust us and don't want our help."

Daniel scowled, "I don't care if they don't want us to help, we're helping." No way was he not going to be there when Chris and Willow were found.

Jack nodded and said, "Yup, that's what I said to Hammond."

He looked questioningly at the silver-haired man, "And?"

"And…he's a little wary of interfering with the group for the obvious reason," replied Jack stuffing his hands in his pockets.

Much in the way that that boy had…

Daniel stood up abruptly, "Jack! I…" he swayed slightly. "Whoa, head-rush."

Jack grasped his best friend's shoulders to steady him as he shook the 'head-rush' off quickly and impatiently.

"I had another dream," he explained.

Jack gave him a blank look, "A dream?"

The archaeologist nodded, "Only it wasn't Tara this time, it was a teenage boy and I was in a school library."

Jack nodded slowly, "And you were there, and you, and there's no place like-

Daniel sighed exasperated, "Jack, I'm serious."

"So was I…what's with the dreams?" Jack asked. Weird…but then again this whole current situation was about a Hellmouth, the supernatural and two witches.

The archaeologist was zoning out, What did that boy say? The last thing I was trying to find the answers to.

"I take you had no luck with figuring out that…uh, rock?" muttered Jack noncommittally.

"The rock?" Daniel blinked then remembered as the last of his tiredness fell away. "The translations."

The warriors for the Powers…PTB? Probably, But what did the Scoobies know about the translations that he didn't? They didn't know Goa'uld language, they probably knew how to translate others but so would he…

Unless it wasn't an alien language, "Jack?" Daniel asked seriously. "I-I need to see the General."

What if the language found on the alien planet was demonic?


	14. Chapter 14

Sudden Changes chapter 14

Sudden Changes chapter 14

The NID Base 'A lab'

The 'White Room' as most scientists called it was of course exactly what it was called; a white room, a room that was devoid of any colour except white- if you could call it a colour- blinding, bright white that was enough to hurt the eyes of anyone looking into the room.

In the middle of the said room was one rather hard hospital bed, around the 'bed' was nothing except white padded walls that you would see if you happened to be visiting a mental institution, there was a single door but it was rather hard to spot because it also was padded so that it blended into the not-so-interesting scenery.

There was one other thing in the room besides the 'bed' and that was a large, long mirror that stretched from one side of the wall to the other side; it was a two-way mirror that was used by the scientists to observe their 'test subject' as they experimented on them.

Behind the two-way-mirror was another room that lacked the whiteness of the padded room it was looking into, it was full of computers, tables, chairs, trolleys and cabinets.

The room in question was occupied by several people in white coats; the typical scientist. Two of the scientists were at their computers tapping their fingers on the keyboards, some of them had their heads down looking into microscopes and some were looking out of the window waiting for the new 'test subject' to arrive.

The white-clad scientists turned their attention to the room through the glass as the padded door opened; a gurney rattled its way into the room noisily and they saw that it had a young redheaded boy bound tightly to it with restraints, though it the boy didn't look like he needed to be restrained as he appeared to be completely unconscious- most likely drugged.

The people pushing the gurney left it in the middle of the room, one of the people seemed to be checking the boy over, then he and his companions exited the room.

Some of the scientists in the room checked the temperature of the room which was shown on some of the computers, they looked up a few moments later and the people that had left the padded room previously entered the room again this time bringing what looked like medical equipment, a defibrillator, a portable Electroencephalography machine (or a 'brainwave thing' as some people called it) and other necessities that would be needed for the testing.

They closed the door firmly behind them.

'The White Room'

Doctor Harry Bryce looked at the kid, he was cute- for a freak. He checked to make sure the IV needle was firmly in place within the kid's wrist, the needle was making sure that the drug they were giving the boy got into his bloodstream. He glanced at the boy again and saw that he was conscious but groggy and unfocussed which was the way they wanted the boy to be.

He turned the EEG machine on, stuck the electrode patches onto the boy's upper forehead and the brainwaves were copied onto the computers in the other room.

His objective was to find out what made the boy 'tick', how he could do what he could do and how to use the power that the boy had to their own advantages.

The results of the X-Rays were stuck up on a white board in the other room; it had shown that the boy was just an ordinary boy; his skeleton, his organs were exactly the same as any other boy's. But his superiors wanted him to keep checking and looking for any physical abnormalities…so far there none.

He grabbed a penlight, carefully lifted one of the boy's eyelids and shone the beam directly into his eye; the pupil became a pinprick surrounded by a brilliant-blue iris. He switched the light off and released the eyelid; sighing he walked over to the intercom and said, "Decrease the sedative."

Chris's POV

I shut my eyes tight against the glare of the light around me, Why is my light so bright? I don't remember my bedroom ever being bright enough to make me screw my eyes up, I groan and open my mouth, "Mommy?" I try to shout but surprisingly it came out as a strange sort of, "Ughm?"

I lift my right hand to rub my eyes, or at least I try to, why can't I move my arm? Maybe the other one will move; I try but I can't move either of them for some reason and now I'm starting to get scared, I don't think I'm even in my own bed anymore; the covers, well, there aren't any covers and the bed I'm on kinda reminds me of the time I had to spend a few hours lying in a hospital bed, hospital beds were yucky, hard and cold exactly like this one and the food was kinda bad too.

I shook my head slightly to stop me head-babbling, I always do that; I head-babble and then I babble like mommy does; it's kinda embarrassing when I do but she thinks it's cute so I guess it's okay. And now I'm head-babbling again, I gotta find out where I am.

"Hello?" I try to say, it came out as, "'ello?" oh well, at least I got it sorta right.

"You're awake Mr. Rosenberg?" said a voice; the voice was really close to him. He saying something else but I can't get what he's saying; my mind's all fuzzy and loopy; I wonder why.

I struggle to open my eyes but they won't open, stupid eyes; the light hurts them; maybe I shouldn't open them. I know! I can use magic.

I feel my magic, I grin; it's all squiggly, okay, I gotta be serious. But…should I use magic? I gotta read that man's mind to find out where I am…my mind's all fuzzed up again…but Mommy said it's bad to read people's minds without asking them first.

The man's saying something else…what's he saying?

"….sedated, he can't seem to concentrate; the boy's abilities seemed to be linked to his thoughts……"

I tried to listen harder, but I can't…

"……shouldn't be able to hurt us because he can't concentrate enough to use his powers…."

Is he talking about me? I suddenly don't like him, where's mommy? I don't think the light's so bright anymore, I think I can open my eyes now.

Everything's…….gloopy, like a really bad, old television screen, I haven't got my glasses on, that's why!

Where are they?

I cleared my throat before saying "Where's my glasses?" and it came out a lot clearer than before.

Then I feel two things, thin, slide on both sides of my face and touch my ears and then I could see everything around me a lot better. I had my glasses back on.

I should look around, wow, what a boring room; it's all bright white, it kinda hurts my eyes.

I jump as a man suddenly appeared in front of me, he reaches down towards my face and forces my mouth open; I glare at him, he gives me a look as if he thinks I'm stupid and puts a see-through stick in my mouth, the ones nurses use when they take your temperature, and tells me to keep it under my tongue.

I scowl and I want to spit it out at his face, but I'd better not because he could be a really bad man; so I do what he says.

Then everything around me goes fuzzy again I don't know how much time passes, could be a long time or maybe no time at all.

I don't know how long everything was fuzzy but the stick thingy isn't in my mouth anymore…what're they called again…I should be able to…but my head's real fuzzy…um, oh, Med…Medical…thermo…thermometers. That's it.

Maybe I fell asleep.

I want mommy, where is she?

"I want my mommy, do you know where she is?" I ask the man who is looking at a weird computer with zigzags on the screen.

The man scowls at me so fiercely that I gulp and wonder how bad this man is, is he bad enough to hurt me, hurt me and my mommy.

The man smirks at me and says coolly, "You aren't going to see your MOMMY for a while, freak." The way he says 'mommy' makes me flinch.

"I'm not a freak!" I snap, this man's a real meanie. Then I freeze, "What do you mean? Where's my mommy!?"

Now I'm scared, this man really is bad. Is he a demon? If he's a person I can't hurt him, well, I can but I can't make him go 'kablooey' like I do to bad demons; my mommy says it's bad and I know it is.

My eyes start closing and I try to keep them open, but I keep feeling sleepy and fuzzy; I shake my head make my eyes go wide to stop them closing.

I try to use my magic but then I'm not sure it's a good idea, my mommy taught me a lot about magic and the first thing she told me was to not use it in front of people who don't know about magic.

But I think he does know about magic because he said something about it, I can't remember though, why can't I? I'm always really good a remembering things.

I concentrate on trying to blow the bad man back across the room…I concentrate…I'm still concentrating, why isn't it working?

"Why isn't it working?" I ask barely realizing I'm saying it. But the man does.

"You're trying to use your powers?" he asks coolly. And he looks at me like my aunt Buffy looked at the Tra'ken demon, one that keeps on throwing up nasty and stinky goo, when it was sick on her new shirt. I just called it a 'puke demon'.

I nod slowly and the look he has on his face goes away and now he looks kinda like me when I'm learning a language that I really like.

"Tell me how you use your powers," he ordered and he sounded like he might not be very happy if I say 'no'…still, I shake my head.

"No, my mommy said not to talk to other people about them," I said firmly, I really wasn't going to tell him. "So, I won't." and then I…well, if my arms weren't tied down to the bed I would be crossing them over my chest so that he'd know that I wasn't going to tell him a thing.

The man glowers angrily at me and I gulp feeling afraid, "Your powers don't work because of the sedative I'm giving you; I can do whatever I want to you…and your MOMMY and you can't do a thing about it."

I know he's right.

"Is my mommy like I am now?" I ask and I'm unable to keep my voice from trembling.

He gave me a nasty grin, "I'm giving her more sedative than you, so she's in Lala Land," his voice sounded like he was making fun of me.

I start to feel fuzzy again and I can tell the bad man is still talking to me but I can make out what he's saying, I just feel sleepy.

End Chris POV

Doctor Harry Bryce scowled at the kid as his head lolled to the side obviously unconscious again, "Dammit."

He shook his head angrily and went to the intercom again, "Tell me when he wakes up." The sedative was an unusual one and he didn't like the way this one was working, he couldn't control the levels of consciousness that the boy had; he scowled and stormed to the door, indicated for several of the scientists to follow him and muttered, "Time to pay a visit to the other one."

The SGC

Daniel crashed through the door to the General's office abruptly almost giving the bald man a heart attack, the Texan looked at the rather scruffy-looking archaeologist is bafflement and sighed, "Do I even want to know?"

Probably not, but he needed to.

"The tablet…" he paused, breathing hard and out of breath. "It's not…it wasn't written by aliens, demons wrote it…or, well, maybe not demons but something supernatural."

General Hammond looked confused, "Well, if it was how…how did it end up on an alien planet?"

Daniel blinked, "I-I dunno, but it's what that boy told me."

Confusion seemed to be a big part of the week, the General asked, "What boy?"

Daniel sighed, "I had another dream, just like the one with Tara, but we were in a library."

"Figures, only you would dream of a library," quipped Jack, who had just walked through the door before dismissing the two befuddled-looking SFs.

Daniel groaned, "Jack! This is serious."

"Isn't it always," but Jack nodded and sobered, turning to his CO. "Daniel thinks his rock was written by a demon or whatever."

Rock?! Daniel shook his head slightly, "It was…that kid told me, I'm pretty sure he's one of Willow's friends from High school; I mean he looked about sixteen. Anyway, he told me it wasn't written by my enemy; the Goa'uld, it was made by demon…the language is demonic not Goa'uld."

The General shook his head, "Are you sure that's possible, Dr Jackson?" How on earth could a demon language end up on an alien planet?

Daniel looked faintly exasperated, "Well, given the fact that my newly-found son is a witch and that we're talking about a Hellmouth I think it's safe to say 'yes'."

He continued, "Willow's friends need to translate it, for all we know it could be important…what if it could help us get Willow and Chris back?"

General Hammond shook his bald head, "I don't see how it could." Daniel seemed to be grasping at straws trying to find them, he knew a desperate man when he saw one and the archaeologist was definitely one of them.

"It's got to be!" exclaimed Daniel with certainty. "The only reason why Tara and that guy have visited before has been because of Chris and Willow."

"So, we get the Scooby gang to translate this and-

"We get them both back," finished Daniel nodding. "But they don't trust us, we have to get them to trust us; if we don't Chris and Willow might not…they might not make it."

Jack put a hand on his best friend's shoulder, "We'll get them back, Danny." That was a promise he'd keep if it killed him, he'd failed to save Sha're; Daniel still hadn't quite got over her death even after five years and Jack was going to make sure he didn't have to go through losing his son and Willow whom the archaeologist was starting to become attached.

Strange as it was, the fact that Daniel hadn't seen Willow since five years ago and that he hadn't even met his son almost didn't seem to make their capture any easier than if he'd been there all along; then again, this was Daniel, the guy continually wore his heart on his sleeve for everyone who wasn't a Goa'uld, so it really shouldn't be a big surprise.

General Hammond nodded, "Right, I'll get in touch with the Scooby gang, see if we can get them to cooperate with us."

Daniel and Jack nodded, then the younger of the two friends started, "Oh! Uh, that boy in my dream told me that the, um, Scoobies have got…well, they're missing something important and that I should set them straight."

"About Chris and Willow?" asked Jack.

Daniel nodded, "Well, yeah. I mean it's probably the only thing they've been thinking about."

"Ya know, besides 'who gets to kill off the NID'," offered Jack looking a little smug.

Daniel and the General both agreed on that, neither of them were quite sure which group would inflict the most pain on Kinsey and the NID, they hoped they'd find out soon enough.

"What could they be getting wrong?" asked Daniel curiously.

Jack shook his head, "Dunno, the location of where Chris and Willow are?"

Daniel gulped as a sudden, horrible thought entered his mind, "What if they think we're involved with the NID, what if they think WE'VE got them?"

General Hammond and Jack O'Neill said nothing, the looks on their unusually pale faces said enough.

On the Plane

Dawn's head sunk further down to her chest sleepily, and then snapped back up; she shook her head slightly and looked around the plane. She had gotten the window seat, had this flight been under better circumstances she would have insisted on getting the window seat because…well, it was just cool.

Every time, when she and Buffy were little kids, they'd got on a plane she and her sister had always fought over which one of them would get the window seat. Their parents usually settled their arguments by suggesting that one of them would take the window seat TO wherever they were going and the other would get the seat on the way back.

Dawn smirked, 'course then they would fight over who got the window seat first; in the end their parents had made them both 'flip on it' heads one got their way and one didn't, simple.

She looked out the window vaguely, not really seeing the view; she was too preoccupied with her anxiety over whether or not they'd succeed in getting Willow and their little Scooby kid back from those asses.

Nibbling her lip slightly she looked at her family, the five of them hadn't ALL been able to get seats together, the seats that she, Buffy and Xander had been given were in the same row whilst Giles and a reluctant Anya had got the seats in front of them.

Xander, the poor guy, had to distract his fiancé from thinking, and therefore talking, about how much she 'wanted to have sex' with him. Dawn was pretty sure that the Air Hostesses hadn't seen or heard people stranger than them, she hoped so anyway; what were the odds of a demon boarding their plane?

"Xander? Why can we just have sex?" asked Anya uncomfortably louder than anyone talking about that subject in a public place should be.

Xander's cheeks reddened, "Aun, people here." He shifted uncomfortably as his fiancé stared down at him from where she was looking over her seat.

"So?" huffed the ex-demon. "I'm pretty sure most of these people know what sex is."

"Do we ever!" laughed a guy sitting behind Dawn's row.

Xander glanced over his shoulder sheepishly and tried to work out if he should glare at the man or not, he decided to try to distract Anya again instead.

Dawn snickered as the ex-demon gave Xander a 'so there' look and proceeded to say, "See!"

Xander gave Anya a helpless look, cheeks burning and glared at Dawn who giggled in amusement.

She looked over to her older sister to see if she was getting as much fun out of Xander's predicament as she was, but she saw that Buffy was tearing up her paper napkin into tiny pieces looking worried and Dawn's glee quickly evaporated before anxiety mingled with guilt worked its way into her thoughts and soul.

Now wasn't the time for funnies, they had to be serious; had to think of ways to get Willow and their kiddie back without too many people, minus the NID, dying. Buffy was no doubt thinking about every scenario of what could happen and what could go wrong; since her therapy classes she had purposefully tried, and succeeded, to improve her skills as a leader and strategist.

More importantly, she had learned to be a team-player and to listen to everyone else's views and suggestions instead of just wanting to do everything her way. She'd grown up more in the last five years than most middle-aged people did in a lifetime.

And that was great, for her, for them and for the rest of the world.

"Anya, for the last time, no," Xander almost-wailed to his so-to-be wife.

Dawn lips quirked upwards, but she suppressed it and decided to do what her sister was doing; they needed everything to go right. She didn't want to think about what would happen if Chris or Willow died; she knew that if it was Chris Willow would go nuts and even Xander wouldn't be able to bring her back this time.

Buffy would alternate between trying to save Willow and trying to help her kill the NID, of course Dawn knew that they'd all react in the same way too.

Giles wouldn't, he'd just outright slaughter the bastards.

Dawn, of course, would help.

Faintly, she heard Giles sigh as Xander and Anya continued their 'conversation'.

NID Base 'White Room no. 02'

Doctor Harry Bryce and the scientists that he'd selected to follow him looked at the young redheaded woman who was strapped to a gurney which was identical to the one that her son was currently lying on; he ordered one of the scientists to lower her sedative, consciously repeating his earlier actions, and waited for her to wake up.

Willow opened her eyes and squinted against the brightness of the room, Was she at a circus or something?

The room she was in slowly swam into focus, she looked around and tried to sit up but realized that she was restrained, "Huh?"

She struggled against the restraints uselessly and resisted the urge to teleport, she didn't even know where she was or where she'd be teleporting to. She didn't want to end up in the Arizona desert which, judging by her past luck with magic, could very well happen.

"Hello, Willow," said a calm, cold voice.

Her head snapped towards the sound and her head swam, for a few moments everything she saw was a blur; she shook her head to try to clear it.

"I was hoping you would wake up," said the voice again, it was male; that much she could tell. "I'm sure that I'm going to have more luck with you than I did with your son, he wasn't terribly forthcoming and he was a tad rude."

Son? Chris.

Trying to concentrate, she blinked hard a few times to focus her vision, "Chris?"

Doctor Bryce smirked, "Yes, it's nice to see that you're, at least, intelligible; your son wasn't quite…with it."

Willow glared at the ceiling, "Where is he?" if the man had hurt him she'd-

"In a separate room," he stated shortly. "Now, let's get straight to the point; I want to know how you and your son can do what you can do."

She immediately knew what he was talking about; she blinked dubiously, what? Not torture? Or maybe that would come AFTER she told him exactly where he could shove his point; Willow sniggered starting to feel drowsy again as she just got a mental-image of the man with a stake up his ass.

Doctor Bryce scowled, "What is so funny, Miss Rosenberg?"

Willow suddenly stopped snickering and glared at the man hatefully as she fought to fully control herself instead of letting the sedative make her into a giggling dork, "If you don't tell me…where my boy is…I'll kill you…and then I'll level this place."

The Doctor looked worried, and then he smirked, "I may not know how you and that boy possess this power but I know it requires a certain level concentration; this drug takes away most of it which is why you're feeling so unclear in your head."

The redheaded witch forced herself to think around the thick fog that was invading her mind, the man was right without her concentration she couldn't control her magic; she could use it, yes, but only if she wanted to level pretty much everything around the room she was in; and then there was Chris.

She didn't even know where she was, for all she knew they were in a city or town; she'd wipe out everything and everyone if she used her magic with no concentration.

Willow's concentration faded for several minutes after this, and then she fought back into full consciousness; whatever this drug was it wasn't the type of sedative she knew about.

"Back, are we?" mocked Doctor Bryce, he was holding a scalpel in his right hand. "Right, well, I need my answers and if you aren't willing to give them to me then I'll just have to make you."

"Go to hell," she ground out; she hoped to god the bastard didn't threaten Chris; she didn't think she'd have the heart to repeat what she'd just said.


	15. Chapter 15

Sudden chapter 15

Sudden chapter 15

'The White Room'

Agent Serena Ryan looked down at the redheaded boy in front of her and felt like shit; she hadn't hurt him at all, she didn't want to; he was just a kid. How could there be any explanation to what her superiors were doing? What they were doing was nothing short of child abuse!

The thought sickened her, she'd never in her life had a soft spot kids, she didn't understand them and she disliked their undeveloped sense of reasoning.

But this was- this was disgusting; she knew that this direction of thought was entirely Grey's fault, he knew, from eight years of a close friendship, perfectly well that she was easily led and easily persuaded; it hadn't taken more than several minutes before she knew that she couldn't let her superiors harm the child and his mother.

But before she was able to devise some sort of plan she had been called in to monitor Christopher Rosenberg, and to carry on with the extraction of information; which of course meant only one thing; torture. Damn.

She brushed a few strands of black hair behind her right ear before looking up at the window where she knew the scientists were, they were probably looking at them. She couldn't do anything about helping Chris, not now. There were too many people watching, too much of a risk.

Her eyes flitted up to his face as she heard him stir quietly; he grimaced slightly before opening his bright-blue eyes, "Mommy?"

Serena let out a breath, she had to do this, "You're mom isn't here." She hated how cold her voice sounded as her Military façade rose up along with the emotionless expression on her face. "My superiors need answers and you're going to give them to me, got it?."

Chris shook his head, "I WON'T," his own 'resolve-face' was plastered across his face, firmly. Why did they keep asking him that? He'd said 'no' hadn't he? Still, this lady wasn't as scary as Dr. Meanie which was good.

He recoiled slightly as she leaned in so close that he could feel her hot breath on his cheek, she whispered to him softly and didn't sound so mean anymore, "Just play along, I'll get you outta here but you have to play along- just lie, okay?"

Serena squeezed his arm tightly to give the onlookers the impression that she'd been threatening him, hopefully this kid was a good actor and wouldn't give anything away. She squashed back the jab of remorse as he whimpered in pain; she released the bruising grip on his arm and moved away from him.

"Agent?" someone asked through the PA.

Serena looked up to the mirror, she couldn't see anything except the reflection of her, Chris and the room; she knew that the scientists were behind the mirror looking in like a kid peering in at their pet goldfish through the goldfish-bowl. She gave them a fake smirk, "I'll crack him, he'll be singing in no time." Little child-abusing bastards.

She leaned over until her nose was barely a centimeter away from the boy's, she then whispered without moving her lips too much, "I'm gonna pull the needle out, it'll hurt but it'll make you feel better afterwards."

Her fingers moved discreetly to Chris's wrist, she could feel him tense and hear him suck in a breath as he got ready to have pain inflicted on him, she tugged at the tape fixing the drip again his wrist and then tightened her fingers around the needle and swiftly pulled it out as if ripping a Band-Aid from a three-year-old's scrapped knee.

Guilt gnawed a her insides as Chris wailed in pain, she looked at him and immediately wished she hadn't, his reddened face was etched in a mask of pain and his hurt-blue eyes were starting to brim with hot tears.

Pushing the remorse aside she said coldly, with a slight break in her voice, "Tell me." He sobbed and she leaned close to his ear again, "Just lie; you'll be outta here in no time." But he kept sobbing.

She drew away and said, "Look, Kid, you'd better tell me now or-

Chris's crying drowned out the soldier's fake threats and echoed around the confines of the room; Serena resisted the urge to cover her ears as the noise assaulted them. Grey would be handling this thing a lot better than she was if only her superiors had chosen HIM for the job. Damn it.

She sighed, she'd wanted the boy to lie about himself until the sedative wore off, unfortunately it looked like that wasn't going to happen. She only hoped that the scientists didn't give up and decide to fully sedate him again, because if they did she didn't know how to explain how the drip had been taken out of Chris's wrist.

NID Base 'White Room no. 02'

Willow made a futile attempt at ducking the next blow and for the forth time she failed at evading the man's fist, blood streamed from her nostrils and over her split upper lip. She was aching everywhere from her scalp where he'd yanked at her head to her second toe next to the biggest one on her right foot where he'd pulled the toenail away from her toe with a pair of pliers; THAT still hurt like a little bitch. Her vision swam in front of her, her face felt hot and bruised, she tried to focus her attention away from the pain but it seemed impossible.

The numerous cuts on her arms felt hot and painful, blood was spreading from the thin wounds and dribbling down her arms onto the 'bed' beneath her; the now-bloodstained scalpel was lying on a table tray by the 'bed'.

Doctor Bryce grabbed her throat and squeezed hard, choking her, "You know, you are really starting to piss me off- you and that freak you got for a son."

Willow tried to suck in oxygen but the man was crushing her windpipe, she gasped again and then black spots danced around in front of her eyes; the spots started getting bigger and bigger as a feeling of falling from a great height overtook her; she was falling…falling…falling into darkness.

Everything went black and silent.

General Hammond held the red phone receiver to his ear, his grasp was tight with anxiety as he spoke to the President, "No, Mr. President. It's only a guess, but there's a possibility that the SGC should expect a visit from the group."

He looked down, "Yes, I'll try to find a way to communicate with them before they inflict any long-lasting damage on us and the potential alliance of our two groups."

He put the receiver down and sighed; he looked up and saw that Jack and Daniel were looking at him, "There's not much else we can do now, I'd better tighten the base's security to DEFCON 3, just incase." Or maybe DEFCON 1 would be more appropriate.

Jack nodded looking tense, "Good idea, General." He wondered what would happen if Willow's friends did find their way into the SGC; they'd raise hell of course. By what he'd read of the reports the gang were as close as SG1 and if their roles were reversed he and SG1 would be doing the same thing. Still, that didn't mean that they wouldn't defend themselves if they did attack them.

Jack and Daniel walked into the crowded commissary and made their way over to the two remaining members of SG1, Sam looked up from her blue JellO and gave her bespectacled best friend a sympathetic smile.

Both the men dropped into their seats, the civilian of the two looked at Sam, "Where've you two been?" neither Jack nor Daniel had seen them since they had first started talking about the possibility of the group of demon-fighters coming after the SGC.

"I've been trying to call up a search on the location of the NID base," explained Sam twirling her spoon with her fingers. "I got nothing."

Daniel sighed and scrubbed his hands over his eyes tiredly, "Great, just great; even YOU can't find anything, what chance does anyone else have?"

Teal'c blinked, "We will find them DanielJackson, it will take time and patience." He could see that the archaeologist was coming to the end of his tether, he hoped that Willow Rosenberg and ChristopherRosenberg would be found soon.

Daniel stopped scrubbing his eyes and looked at the Jaffa between his fingers, "Time and patience are exactly what they DON'T have, Teal'c. The longer the NID have…I don't even know what they're doing to them or even if they're still alive."

Teal'c nodded once, slowly, "I concur that they do not have much time, though I am still inclined to believe what I know; finding WillowRosenberg and ChristopherRosenberg will take the time that they might not have. We will not find them simply by wishing it so."

"Do we even know WHEN Willow's friends are going to be in Colorado Springs?" asked Sam nervously. "Maybe we could head them off before they get to the SGC, ya'know to get them to see that we're on their side." If their luck was that good.

"Hammond's trying to find a way to communicate with them," said Jack fiddling with a spoon. He looked at Daniel, the man was looking very subdued and was unconsciously flexing his hands into fists and then unclenching them again, "Daniel-

"I don't know what to do, Jack," admitted the archaeologist warily. "I mean, first we have to find them, then convince them not to kill us and, hopefully if that works, go and find Chris and Willow." That pretty much summed up what they needed to do, but what if trying to convince Willow's friends didn't work? What would happen then?

Plane

The Scoobies wrestled their hand luggage from the compartments above the plane seats, people were waiting in the gangway to get out of the plane so they had to be careful not to accidentally drop a bag or two onto the said peoples' heads.

Buffy handed her little sister two bags from her position, standing on the seats, and almost didn't notice the anxious look on the younger girl's face, "Dawn?"

Seeing as those last two bags were actually the last of their belongings the Slayer jumped down from the seat, making another passenger in very close proximity jump in surprise, and looked at her sister, "How you holding up?"

Dawn chewed on her bottom lip, "W-what if Chris and…what if we don't ever get them back?"

The blonde gave her a one-armed hug, "We WILL get them back, I promise." Because the very idea of Willow and Chris getting killed was, despite all the loved ones they'd lost and all the experience they had of people dying, unimaginable. Still, she knew it was very possible.

The crowd of passengers had now filtered out through the door, Xander called to them, "Guys, we got two of our people to find, c'mon." He followed Anya out the door and onto the metal steps that led them to the ground far beneath them.

"Let's go," muttered Buffy and Dawn followed her as they made their way to the exit. They walked down the steps quickly and met the others on the ground, without talking they waited for the coach to come so that they could be taken to the Colorado Springs Terminal.

In a few minutes the coach came and the gang swiftly boarded the vehicle along with about a dozen other people, the coach was packed but the gang all got seats.

The combination of the slight jostling of the coach and only one hour's sleep made Dawn's eyes unable to stay open and about two minutes into the ride she was asleep with her head resting on Anya's shoulder.

General Hammond marched into the commissary after more than two hours since his talk with Daniel and Jack; he spotted SG1 and made his way over to them.

Sam looked up as he came to their table, "General, sir." She saw Daniel practically jump out of his seat trying to look at the expression on the man's face to see if there was good news or bad.

"General?" asked the archaeologist hopefully. Maybe he'd contacted the gang and convinced them that they were in the same boat.

Jack pulled up a chair for the General who accepted it, sat down, and then looked at Daniel

"I've just gotten a call," started Hammond wearily, he had their 100 percent attention. "The gang's plane has landed at Colorado Springs airport terminal, I want SG1 to meet them at the terminal and get them to stand down."

"Yes sir," said Jack and Sam simultaneously. SG1 and the General stood up and made their way out of the commissary unaware of the dozens of personnel watching them curiously.

"Sooo, looks like we're going into the lion's den," said Jack as he acted on his undying habit of attempting to put a little dry humor into a serious situation.

Daniel, the General, and Teal'c ignored his joke as they usually did at these times, but he saw his Major's lips twitch up into a brief smile, "Score," he muttered, he always liked to make her smile with his lame jokes.

The General resisted the urge to roll his eyes at the two soldiers. 


	16. Chapter 16

Chapter 16

Chapter 16

A/N: Sorry for the delay, had my end of term exam last week.

A/N: the forward slashes indicate Telepathic communicating.

NID, White Room no. 02

Willow opened her eyes slowly, the first thing she noticed was that she was still on the gurney and that her whole body hurt like hell; she swallowed and gagged at the pain in the neck, she swallowed again, this time carefully. Her head was pounding, the sedative she was still on was numbing the pain a little; unfortunately it was difficult to focus; she knew one thing though- she needed to get off this gurney and out of this damn room.

She struggled in futile attempt to loosen the restraints that were pinning her to the rather hard bed, she stopped after a bit and then tried to concentrate on honing her magic. It was a useless attempt.

"Crap."

The redhead screamed in sudden shock as a torrent of ice-cold water was poured over her, she screwed her eyes up against the shower as the water collided with her face; after the shower ceased she shook her head; drops of the liquid flew off her. She shivered slightly and when she opened her eyes she saw that Doctor Bryce was standing in front of her, glaring.

"I'm going to continue these sessions on you until you start talking," he stated. "And they WON'T be getting any less painful." He flexed his hands suggestively and smirked darkly. "You want to start talking?"

Willow glowered at the man and then asked rhetorically, "What do you think?" she leaned back ever so slightly as he bent towards her.

He smiled, "I think I need to start working on your son, now." Then he grabbed her wrist and gave it a swift twist, his smile widened as he heard the bones snap; he sighed as he saw her hold back a cry of pain. "Poor little Chris, I'll make sure that the pain you're feeling now will be NOTHING compared to what I'm going to do to the boy." He dropped her hand back onto the gurney.

He watched in mild interest as the young woman seemed to concentrate through the pain and the drug, he cocked his head at her mockingly as he listened to her, "If you hurt him, I'll kill you…I'll will, then I'll get your….cronies." she seemed to be loosing her concentration, the drug would be helping there.

"At the risk of sounding cliché…" his cockiness seemed to permeate the room. "…Ooh, I'm really scared." He smirked again, turned his back on her and walked towards the door.

Willow's desperate threats followed him out the room.

Colorado Springs, Airport Terminal

"So, the group consists of three women and two men," noted Jack. "Got it." He pulled back the handle to open the car door on his side and stepped out onto the sidewalk. He looked around at the groups of bustling people moving around the Terminal, he smirked and looked at his team as they stepped up next to him, "Lucky we saw photos of the kids BEFORE we came out here." It would be like looking for a needle in a haystack, pretty much impossible.

"You got that right," Sam muttered looking around at the crowds of people hurrying in, out and around the airport terminal.

"'Course I'm right, Carter," said Jack cheekily. "Aren't I always?" he saw his 2IC bite back a grin and gave her a look of fake hurt. He took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "Oooookkaay…." He started scanning the crowds of people running in different and random directions; he knew that the rest of his team was doing the same thing.

A few minutes later Jack was about to split the group up to look for the kids more effectively, they weren't getting anywhere trying to spot them in the hoards of frantically rushing people and flying luggage, when he heard Teal'c shout.

"O'Neill!"

Jack, Sam and Daniel whipped their head around from the directions they had been staring in to look at their alien friend, they followed his gaze and found what they suspected were their targets.

Daniel stepped beside Teal'c as he looked at the group, "That's them, it has to be." Five people, three woman and two men, were walking away from them and the terminal towards the road.

Jack sighed, "C'mon, if our luck plays out maybe we'll only come away with a few bruises. Let's go." They strode towards the group of five as a taxi pulled up on the side of the road after it had been hailed. "Wait a minute!"

The four kids and the older man looked at them first with irritation and then with suspicion; the older guy stepped up as he gave them a chilling look, "What seems to be the problem?"

Jack knew instantly that this was the ex-Watcher, Rupert Giles, they had ran a background check on the gang and had come up with the ex-Watcher's profile; they had dug up some police files on Rupert Giles as an adolescent up to when he was a young man and had found out that he had committed a number of offences namely: robbery and motor vehicle theft. His nickname, as a rebellious youth, had been 'Ripper' as they had found out from the information that the Initiative had put together; and apparently 'Ripper' was as nice as the name sounded.

"You're the ex-Watcher, Rupert Giles, aren't you?" asked Daniel quickly, half hopeful half certain that he already knew the answer to be 'yes'. "I-I'm Daniel Jackson, this is-

Jack's eyes widened, "Whoa, Danny!" Okay, he got that his friend was stressed but alarming their potential allies wasn't the best idea. He looked at the cab driver who was looking at them with vague interest. "Look, pal, you wanna…" he gestured away from himself, his meaning clear.

The driver looked at him and then at the group that had waved him over, "You getting in or not."

Dawn stepped up to Jack, glaring at him, "Where's Willow and Chris?"

"Gee, I'd love to tell you really, I would," He said wryly. "But I'm not always Mr. Know-it, ya know." He heard the young blonde woman apologizing quickly to the cab before the high-pitched sound of screeching tyres made his ears hurt.

Then before he knew it the twenty-something young woman was pushed to the side and he found himself on the receiving end of the Slayer, Buffy Summers' glare; his team tensed as she growled, "Tell me where they are, now. Before I-

"Oh, for crying out loud," snapped Jack in frustration. "We're on the same damn side."

Teal'c nodded slowly, "We are, in fact, ALSO looking for WillowRosenberg and ChristopherRosenberg." His declaration resulted in him getting strange looks from the gang.

The dark-haired man smirked, "Quite a mouthful there."

The Jaffa just looked at the younger man steadily, the gaze was enough to send weaker men running for cover but the guy stared right back stonily; the groups watched the stare-down with a little interest, until the ex-vengeance demon of the group moved closer to Dawn while looking at the large man hungrily- of course, those who knew Anya already knew what she was going to say.

"That guy is huge! I wonder how big his peni-"

"Anya!" cried Xander finally looking away from Teal'c. "Honey, now's not the time." He looked back at the big guy and saw that he had one eyebrow raised in…astonishment? Amusement? Who knew?

He and Sam just stared at the ex-demon, eyebrows raised incredulously while Daniel seemed to get more and more agitated; Giles was glaring at the leader of the four while Buffy took a more direct approach and shoved him into a, fortunately for him, parked car, "Whoa, look kid I told you we're not-

"Where the hell are they!?" she snarled, her nose was centimeters from his own; fist raised ready to swing. "You'd better start talking fast or I'll-

"No, no, god NO!" Daniel screamed incensed. "We don't know ANYTHING, why the HELL would we walk up to you if we did!? Jack and Teal'c aren't lying, we're trying to help Willow and Chris out as much as you are."

Jack looked at the archaeologist, he needed to calm the guy down; he was too far close to snapping, he felt the blonde's grip loosen and glanced at her. She was looking at Daniel with a cold look on her face and he hoped that she wouldn't rile him up.

They were starting to attract a lot of attention from passersby, and unlike the residents Sunnydale these guys weren't likely to rationalize and forget what might happen; he certainly didn't want the NID and that bastard Kinsey to know that they were going to attempt a rescue very soon.

"You say you want to help us? How do you expect us to believe that?" She smirked at the archaeologist slightly. "C'mon, you military-types should know better than that."

"I'm not military," said Daniel pointedly. "Just because you happened to have a run-in with ONE part of the military, doesn't mean that the whole branch is the same!"

He had a good point there. Jack vaguely noticed that the young man and his girlfriend was talking to Teal'c; the woman was grinning at the big guy in a rather suggestive manner while the man seemed to be threatening him with bodily harm; though how he would manage that was a mystery to Jack. Teal'c would cream the younger and smaller man in a heartbeat.

He also saw that his 2IC was arguing rather heatedly with Giles, the guy looked close to taking a swing at her. He knew that Carter could take care of herself but he really didn't like the 'Ripper' guy, he was described as being a little psychopathic. Still, whether he wanted to help or not, it didn't look like he would get out of the blondie's freakishly-strong grip any time soon.

Surprisingly, at least to him, Buffy released her grip on his lapels and backed away from him slightly, still watching the bespectacled man, "You're not military?"

"No."

He tensed as the blonde grinned sardonically, "You're not military! Let's be best pals!"

Jack cringed inwardly, "Crap." Danny was NOT in the mood to be messed with. Just as Daniel was about to start yelling again he heard the youngest person say something that made his blood cool.

"Buffy! Teal'c's not human!"

"Aw, shit," he groaned, just when things couldn't get any worse.

NID

Agent Duncan Grey set his face into a mask of indifference as he walked through the halls of the NID base, he wondered how Serena, Chris and his mom were doing, were they out yet? Then again the base was pretty guarded, could they get out of the base without being detected? Maybe, if Serena was anything it was resourceful…if a little impressionable, okay a lot impressionable. But she was bright and she could get the boy and his mom out if she was given a good chance; he hoped they were given that chance.

If not, well, it wasn't the end of the world- there was another way to make it easier to get them out without being seen and caught and he was just about to make it happen.

The brown-haired man walked into the elevator and hit the button for one of the lower floors, he waited as the mechanical box rattled down past a couple of floors before slowing to a lurching stop that made his insides bounce; the doors slid open and he walked out calmly.

He passed only a few guards on the floor, he was relieved to find that no one was guarding the main power box like they were usually supposed to; he supposed that they had no reason to as the only suspects were locked up and they didn't expect any disloyalties from their own soldiers, "Should be more careful," he muttered to himself as he used his stolen key to gain access to the wires; he ripped into the wires and then pulled the two levers down at the same time.

The halls went dark as the power shut down; the soldier almost shook from the adrenaline that was racing through his veins as he hoped that his superiors hadn't had a chance to install the back-up power. He shouldn't think they had because the complex had only been up for a few months, so hopefully not.

The halls remained dark as he ran back the way he'd came, after a minutes of running around he grabbed a door to a storage room and shot inside; he needed to wait, the elevators weren't working obviously so he had to wait and hopefully someone, preferably Serena, would come a get him.

Until then he had to keep a low profile while everything went to hell above him.

White Room

The tears on Chris's face had dried on his face since he'd stopped crying, his face was still flushed; eyes still swollen, wet and red; nose red and runny and chest rising and falling unevenly as he whimpered and gasped occasionally from his earlier bout of crying. He sniffled and looked at his surroundings; the brightness of the room now had a lesser effect on his eyes as they had adjusted.

He looked to his left and saw that the dark-haired woman that had pulled the needle from his wrist was still looking at him, she was facing away from the huge mirror with an conflicted look on her face; the boy watched in trepidation as she walked up to him steadily. After a few seconds she quietly asked him, "You feeling more awake now?"

Actually, Chris was able to concentrate better; he nodded slightly and was about to say something but before he could everything went dark, he didn't like the dark and now hated even more that usual after the NID had taken him, "Why is everything dark?!" he strained against the straps that pinned him to the bed.

"Stay calm," ordered Serena warily. She listened to the clattering footfalls of the scientists behind the two-way mirror as they made their way out of the room. She knew that they could no longer see into the room that she and Chris were in because both room were now darker.

They had their window of opportunity.

She snatched up a scalpel and grabbed the straps binding Chris; the boy cringed back in fear. A force propelled her backwards into the wall; she slid down it as she fought to breathe after the air was expelled from her lungs.

Chris felt hope as he realized that he could use magic again; his attention was caught when he heard the lady talk to him. "Chris, for god's sakes, I'm trying to help."

"You were?" he looked at the sharp object that was still in her hand. "You were trying to hurt me."

"I wasn't, I was going to cut the straps," she argued. "We've got to get out NOW, or not at all. And Grey's still waiting for us."

"Who's Grey?" he asked.

"He's working on helping you and your mom out as much as I am," she explained carefully. "We need to find him, find your mom and then get out; preferably alive."

The boy nodded slowly, "So, you're not going to hurt me?"

"No, I'm trying to help you."

The boy smiled at her brightly, "And my mommy, too?"

She nodded.

Five minutes later Chris was freed from the restraints they worked on getting the door opened, which proved to be harder than she'd anticipated; she kicked the padded door angrily, "Shit."

The redhead's eyes went wide, "What's a 'shit'?"

"Nothing you should know," she said over her shoulder as she looked at the door. Despite the way her step-dad her brought her up, she didn't think that swearing at kids was appropriate. And neither was hurting them, not like he'd hurt her, she'd never hurt a kid like that.

"Are you trying to open the door?" he asked, eyes wide. "I can open it, my mommy taught me how."

Lucky kid, she nodded and said, "Okay, then." She stood back at a safe distance, not wanting to get hit with anything unexpected- like a flying door.

Chris closed his eyes in a bid to concentrate better, his breathing slowed and the room was filled with complete silence as the minutes went by. He opened his eyes suddenly and stared at the door, and then he squinted his eyes.

The door creaked and groaned in its frame but didn't move, he huffed, "Why won' it open?"

"Concentrate on it harder," ordered Serena impatiently, it was taking longer than she'd first thought it would. "Those guys might still be hurting your mom, you NEED to try harder."

Chris's eyes brimmed with tears, "Okay." He wished his mommy was here, what if he never got the door open? What if they never got out? He'd never see her again. He really, really hoped she was okay.

White Room no. 02

/I wish mommy was here, what if I never get the door open? What if we never get out? I'll never see mommy again./

Willow snorted wryly, "Great….now I'm hearing voices." As if being here in this boring room wasn't enough, still at least the room wasn't blinding her anymore; the room had gone dark around ten minutes ago, maybe more. Well, how should she know how much time had passed? She was just trying to ignore the pain in her wrist.

/I really, really hope she's okay/

She frowned, trying to concentrate, was that Chris? It kinda sounded like him. It would be easier to find out if she could just concentrate more, stupid sedative. Strangely enough she was starting to feel a little less funky, though. Vaguely, though, she could feel her magic simmer a little. "Maybe it's responding to the voice," she muttered to herself.

/My magic's not as good as mommy's, it's not fair! WHY isn't it!?./

She smiled at the slightly petulant tone of the voice; wait 'magic'? Maybe…it might be Chris. It sounded like him.

/Mommy said one time that she could put some of her power into me, that would work! No, she might be asleep. If I had more magic I could save mommy, we'd never have go back here ever again!/

"I could do that….need to get my magic to do what I want it to do, if only I could concentrate," she mumbled to herself. But maybe she didn't need to concentrate THAT much, she just needed to do what she did when she and her friends were fighting that…that ADAM thing. Only she wouldn't use her essence, just a little magic.

She wouldn't know unless she tried.

White Room

Chris sobbed and stamped his foot on the ground, "Why won't it work?!" he sniffled and attempted to start concentrating again, unfortunately he found himself unable to calm down enough to do so.

He gave up and looked behind him; he saw that the lady, Serena, was glaring at the door furiously as if she were willing the door to open. Which wouldn't happened, she wasn't a witch like he was.

Just then the lock on the door clinked open, he gasped in horror and fear, "No! Don't come in here!" he ran to the door and started pushing it with all of his strength, but the door crashed open sending him falling backwards onto his butt. He felt Serena lift him up by his underarms to help him to stand again, he latched onto her hand in fright as 'Dr. Meanie', as he'd named him, stood their looking at Serena with shock then at Chris with fear and anger.

"What the hell are you doing, Agent!?" he shouted incensed, he studied the boy as if looking to see whether a rabid dog had been completely tranquilized or not. "If you've been helping him all along, disobeying my orders…you can kiss your career goodbye!"

"Looks like I'm going in for the final smooch, then," snapped the agent glaring at the man. "I won't lose any sleep over it, trust me." Chris's grasp on her hand tightened in anxiety.

Chris gulped, stiffened and then gave 'Dr. Meanie' his best glare, "Where's my mommy?"

He sneered at the four-year-old, "Somewhere you'll never see her again, little boy."

"You better tell me where she is now!" he yelled, eyes brimming with tear again. "Or I'll make you sorry!" When all the man did was smile at him as if he were a stupid dog he threw himself forwards into the man's stomach, rebounded on him and started kicking the man's shins. "Tell me!"

"Chris!" yelled Serena.

Doctor Bryce caught a fistful of his red hair and yanked harshly upwards, the action elicited a cry of pain and when he opened his eyes he found himself looking straight into the end of a gun.

"What're you gonna do!?" the anger and fear in Serena's voice was audible. "Shoot a kid! Are you crazy?!"

Well, Chris definitely thought this guy was crazy; they wouldn't be in this room if he weren't. He grabbed the wrist of the hand holding his hair and started struggling, but stopped soon after as it only made his scalp hurt worse.

"Just get that gun away from him," she pleaded. "He's just a little kid!"

Doctor Bryce glared at her, "He is a powerful weapon, nothing more. If he can't be used by us he'll be disposed of."

"You're fucking insane," she spat angrily. "Just give me the kid."

Those new words she kept saying sounded bad, the fleeting thought ran through his aching head. He should ask his mommy about them…when he found her.

The doctor sighed in disappointment, "I can see that we've lost you to these…creatures. Our superiors have been notified of the power failure, and I've been told to terminate the experiment if anything goes wrong."

Serena glared at him, "The people above your superiors will wonder about this project. How will you explain all this?"

Chris almost jumped out of his skin when the loud noise of a bullet being released assaulted his ears, he cried out and started struggling again. The hand released him and he fell back, he backed away from the man who was looking behind him at something.

He turned around to run back to Serena when his eyes landed on something that made his eyes widen and his entire body stiffen, then he felt the cool, hard end of the gun pressed against his head.

He didn't pay attention to that, he only looked at the unmoving body of his helper; the dark red liquid running down from her forehead and onto the floor; the splatter of red on the wall behind her. His ears were ringing loudly, an aftereffect of the gunshot, while he felt cold and numb.

His eyes darkened, he felt suddenly powerful- like he could do anything he wanted, he also felt the one person he knew could really help him: his mom. He needed to find her, quickly. But he didn't know where she was; he needed to find Grey first, HE would probably know where his mommy was.

Chris turned around, eyes dark brown in colour, and sent Doctor Bryce sailing through the air, out the door and along the hall until he smacked into a wall and fell to the floor. He didn't get back up again.

Good.


	17. Chapter 17

Chapter 17

Chapter 17

"Buffy! Teal'c's not human!" Dawn yelled; she tensed as she looked at the dark-skinned man. Her magic had started getting more and more agitated since she'd gotten close to Teal'c; she hadn't properly analyzed the feelings until now.

She'd spent the last several minutes focusing her magic on Teal'c, it had showed that he was not human; she had never read a biology book that stated that humans could carry small snakes in their stomachs; but demons! Anything could happen with them.

"So, what?" started her older sister, sounding pissed. "You military people are starting to make more super-soldiers?"

Ya know, like ONE wasn't enough!

"Ah, a super-" Jack paused for a second looking puzzled, then his eyes widened slightly. "Teal'c?" he looked at the large man and gestured. "This guy? He's not super-sol…or whatever those things were I was told about- C'mon! Is this the face of a dead guy?" he pointed faintly at the man when he said this. Teal'c just looked at him blankly.

Dawn looked at Teal'c; he didn't look like any of the super-soldiers she'd seen back when the Initiative was around, but that didn't mean anything. YEARS had passed since the operation was shut down, they were probably better at covering up their tracks. Besides, he had to be something other that human- he had a snake in his gut.

"Okay, what the HELL is going on?" ground out Buffy coldly.

They'd better start being honest with them or there could be some problems; they didn't have time for problems, neither did Willow and Chris. Dawn's gaze flitted for her angered sister to the anxious man that had introduced himself as Daniel, although he didn't look like the type of person that would hurt anyone she knew that looks didn't mean anything, evil could come in all shapes and sizes.

Heck, Glory had looked like a Gucci-obsessed blonde; and look what she had done.

"We are trying to save your friends," intoned Teal'c steadily. "We do not associate with the group that has taken them; we are in fact enemies."

"Hey, Frankenstein," snapped Xander scathingly. "Quit lying, we didn't survive by being naïve ya know."

Teal'c inclined his head, "I do not know of this Frankenstein but I assure you, my name is Teal'c."

Xander blinked, "W…what?" then he shook his head. "Quit trying to confuse me, it's not working…really…" he swallowed. "It really isn't." He shifted slightly as Teal'c just glared at him more.

Daniel clenched his hands into fists, glared at them furiously and said, "I want to get Willow and Chris back as much as you do, and so do my friends!" he frowned around at the younger group as if daring them to contradict him.

Dawn blinked, Why would they care whether or not Willow and Chris made it back? Unless… "Maybe you're not with that group."

Daniel closed his eyes in relief; the former Key almost believed that he was genuine; his emotions seemed real to her. But they couldn't chance it. Not with so much at stake. "Maybe you want Willow and Chris for yourselves, different group; same methods."

"That's not true!" exclaimed Sam fervently. "We HATE the NID, and everything they stand for, as much as you do." Giles was still glaring at her, so she started glaring right back.

"I seriously doubt that," remarked Xander scathingly. "They've just kidnapped two members of our family! Both who I've known since birth! How can you hate them as much as us?"

Sam turned her glare from Giles to Xander, "You think they haven't come after us too!? They almost killed the four of us on a number of occasions; Chris and Willow aren't the only ones that the NID has tried to experiment on; and while we're touching that particular subject, we've wasted ten minutes on just bickering with each other- how are you gonna explain that to your 'family'?!"

Dawn looked at Sam and was surprised to find that the four strangers were actually starting to convince her that they weren't behind her friends' kidnapping; she didn't know why, though. They just seemed genuine, either they were good actors or they were telling the truth. In which case, they HAD just wasted all this time on fighting and basically tracking the wrong people.

"And why, pray tell, would you care?!" snapped Giles with a Ripper-like look on his face.

The blonde threw him a glower of animosity, he returned the look; the feeling of hatred was obviously quite mutual, the blonde major didn't say a thing; she turned to Daniel, and looked at him the way Dawn had looked at Spike; like a friend and brother; she said, "Daniel, you gonna tell them?"

Tell us what?

The bespectacled man hesitated for a moment, then he said, "Almost six years ago Tara Maclay died, right?" he looked at the small group cautiously.

Dawn felt anger creep into her mind, how could he know about that? And why the hell would he remind them about Tara's death? There had better be a damn good reason for that because talking about what happened to the blonde witch wasn't something she or Willow could do easily; even six years later.

Tara had been like a mother to her after Joyce and Buffy had died, she'd made her feel better even when she felt that no one had cared about her any longer; then she'd left her just like everyone had seemed to have done.

Willow had been like a cool older sister; in some ways they had been able to connect with each other in a way that she and her blood-sister never could; she and Tara had treated her like an adult most of the time and yet still looked out for her as if she were a kid.

When Willow and Tara had fought and split up it was like her mom and dad all over again; the fights, the yelling, the divorce and the eventual abandonment at the hands of Hank Summers; she'd hated when her parents had split and she'd hated it even more when the two witches had separated- the only difference between the pair of lovers was that Willow and Tara were actually meant for each other and had never had that many fights. They had been perfect together; at that time they had been the only thing in her life that had been perfect- everything else had been a mess.

"Yes," Dawn snapped between her clenched teeth. "So, what's your point?"

Daniel sighed, "Well, around the same time someone I loved very much died too; I took a…um, break at San Diego; and that's where I met Willow." An uncomfortable silence followed this revelation. "And unless Willow had a boyfriend somewhere around 2003…she didn't, did she?" For an odd reason he seemed hopeful; but to be hopeful about what exactly?

…oh, well- she got it now…

"Sweet fancy Moses," the whisper from Xander carried to everyone's ears which resulted in Teal'c giving the boy a brow-twitch that might have confusion; who knew? Oz was easier to read than this guy.

"No," answered Buffy, eyes wide in realization; then her eyes narrowed in suspicion, but she didn't say anything.

Was that relief on the guy's face? Looked like it.

"Then, Chris really is my…" a dazed look overcame the man's features. "I mean, I'm a…"

Giles glared at Daniel, "How do we know you aren't lying?"

Daniel, still stunned, blinked at the older man blankly.

Buffy smirked, "Bringing 'Frankenstein', here-" she gestured towards the man. "- would kinda kill trust potential, don't you think? Not that there was one in the first place."

Dawn noticed that people had quickly lost interest in their little altercation and were now walking away, other people just walked passed them only giving them vaguely curious glances as they passed. That was a relief to her and the other people, "Buffy, don't you think we should take this some place else?"

Her sister glanced at her, then she looked around.

The tall grey-haired man answered for her, "The kid has a good point," he looked at the blonde Slayer. "My superiors want us to bring you back to our base; we just want to find Willow and Chris and we all think it'll be in the hostages' best interest if we help each other get them back."

Buffy shook her head slightly obviously unconvinced, "And, what? You just think it'll be that simple; you think we're that stupid that we'd walk into a situation that has a neon sign over it saying 'TRAP!' Just because Chris MIGHT be your son. For all we know you could be lying!"

"We're not!" Daniel yelled angrily. "Willow and my son are missing, I need to find them and stop Willow- Tara told me!" This garnered some hopeful looks on the other groups' faces- except Daniel and of course Teal'c.

Dawn saw the agonizing frustration in the man's bright blue eyes, "Buffy, I think they're genuine." Hey, she had to try- her sister could be as stubborn as hell sometimes; although Willow wasn't exactly introverted either these days. Both of them were as stubborn as each other; with Will's 'resolve-face' and Buffy's…well, Buffy's deadly-Slayer face.

Xander looked at the older man in surprise, "What're you talking about? You know that she's…" he glanced at Dawn hesitantly. "…um, not here." They had all been affected by Tara's pointless death; Willow had of course taken it the hardest, the witch still wasn't over her death and Dawn hadn't quite stopped getting the lingering nightmares yet. After Willow she had taken it pretty hard too.

"In my dream," he started. "Tara said that I need to save them from the people who want to use him as a tool against-

"Daniel!" Sam hissed in alarm.

"Ah, Daniel!" Jack suddenly blurted out. "Out in the open? Really?"

Daniel just kept looking at Buffy, "There's another threat to humanity that you don't know about, we fight it, but a hidden part of our government- like the Initiative- keeps working against US instead of the real threat…they're power-hungry and in their minds Chris and Willow are ways for them to gain power; they won't stop until they get it," he swallowed anxiously. "And if they don't get what they want, they'll make sure that no one else can…they'll dispose of them like they tried to dispose of my best friend." He cocked his head in Sam's direction as an indication.

Buffy looked at the man analytically and said slowly, "What did she look like? How much did Tara tell you?" it was a trick question; good thinking, sis.

Daniel sighed in exasperation, "She had blonde hair- maybe dirty-blonde- blue eyes; a little taller that Willow- a bit stocky. She was too cryptic; I couldn't get much out of her," he paused briefly. "And then I was in a library with the other guy, he was about fifteen or sixteen; a little goofy- he knew Buffy was the Slayer; said that she'd kick my ass for getting her best friend pregnant."

He looked at Xander, "He said to me to tell you that he could feel the worms in the earth; apparently it wasn't that cool." A blank look was all that he received from the boy for the next few moments.

Then, Xander's eyes went wide, "Jesse," the single word held an emotion that was familiar to him; the tone of pain and loss was unmistakable in the young man's voice. Dawn only had one memory of Jesse; it was a very brief one in which she had been introduced to her as Buffy's little sister- apparently Jesse had always wanted a younger sibling especially after his parents had split up.

Daniel then turned to Buffy who had a conflicted look on her face, "There was a crossbow in the library; stacks of books…it was a high school library, I think."

Buffy gaped, "Sunnydale high," she muttered.

Oh, shit; they HAD been following the wrong guys! "How could we be so stupid!?" Dawn cried in angry, disappointed guilt.

Hope the glinted in Daniel's eyes, "Help us get them back," he implore, the hope in his eyes became more pronounced. "Please."

Dawn looked pleadingly at her older sister, even though she still didn't trust them she knew that they weren't against them; they didn't want Willow and Chris to be used by power-hungry morons; both their groups had a common enemy, the NID, and they both had one objective, to get Chris and Will back, "Buffy, they obviously know more about this NID group than we do; I don't think they're lying about this."

After a second, in which Buffy continually frowned at Daniel, she nodded, "Okay," then she gave the other group an icy look. "Make a wrong move, you're all dead. Got it?"

Teal'c, lips twitching into a slight smile, inclined his head; Daniel and Sam nodded with hopeful looks on their faces.

Jack's eyes gleamed with triumph and relief before they shuttered to their normal military look; he said, "Let's get this show on the road, kids."

Buffy glared at them, "First, tell us what's the deal with Chuckles over there." She jerked her blonde head in Teal'c's direction. "Until then, we're not going anywhere."

Her sister had a good point, What was the deal with the big guy?

Jack tensed, "You'll be told everything back at base."

What did they take us for? Idiots?

Her sister gave them a piercing look, "You want us to walk back with you to a base that's full of soldiers? Why not tell us here?"

Jack scoffed, "Because!" he lowered his voice. "In case you haven't noticed we're in the middle of the freaking street, is why!"

Buffy looked at Giles, who nodded slowly; she turned to Jack, "Okay, we'll go."

The colonel let out a breath that he'd obviously been holding, "Sweet," she heard him mutter.

Then, she continued, "But, you know what we are, right?"

SG1 nodded, oh yeah- they knew.

"Right, well, you know not to make with the funny business," she said pointedly. "Let's go."

"'Funny business?'" Dawn heard Chris's supposed 'Father' say. "They have all the power over us."

"Don't remind me," groaned Jack, then he turned to the rest of us. "We got two cars so we can get you back to our base, c'mon."

Without a word the group of demon fighters followed, still keeping a wary eye on the others.

NID Base

Over there! Chris's black eyes stared at the door to the storage closet blankly; his magic probed around inside the room and he knew that Serena's friend was in there. He ignored the sounds of people yelling, it sounded so far away that he didn't worry at all, they'd be gone before those people caught up with them.

He focused his will and magic on the door and swiftly ripped it off its hinges completely, a man jumped out of the room obviously shocked; the guy- who Chris assumed was Grey- swore loudly, "You grown-ups sure do say some mean things," he piped up.

Grey just stared at him, "You-

Chris felt a bolt of fear shoot down his spine, "Y-you're one of the peoples that tooked me!" Was he a friend or not?

Grey gave him a look that reminded him of the expression he'd had on his own face when him mommy had caught him with his hand in the jar of cookies; the man sighed and said, "Yes, I was. But I'm trying to get you out, now."

The redhead frowned at him, "Why did you take me and my mommy?" he had to have an answer to that, it was an answer that Chris wanted to hear.

"My bosses ordered me to," he explained nervously. "Say, you aren't gonna throw me around like last time, are you?

Chris considered this for a moment, "Are you gonna try to take me back there?"

"No, Serena and I were working on getting you out," informed the soldier. "Where is she anyway?"

For a few moments Chris didn't know what to say, he looked down and saw splashes of red on his night clothes, a lump formed in his throat making it hard for him to breath; his eyes burned as he looked up guiltily, "She rescued me and t-the bad man was angwy and h-he hurt her and she wouldn't get up."

The black faded from his eyes as he scrubbed them with his fists, he sniffled tearfully, "She was really nice, even though she p-pretended she wasn't and the bad man made her pull the injection out and squeeze my arm real hard, but she didn't want to."

Agent Duncan Grey put his hands under the boy's arms and lifted him up, the boy's arms wrapped around his neck as he hugged the younger boy to him, "Chris? The bad man used a gun, right?"

The young witch nodded his head against his wet, tear-soaked shoulder and sobbed, "Y-yes, I think so, it was real loud and it hit her head and it looked like it hurt, but she didn't cry. Why didn't she cry?"

The agent stared uncomprehendingly at the wall in front of him; Serena was dead? The girl who he'd known since they were fifteen, "Fuck," he mumbled. She'd gotten away from that drunken asshole that had the nerve to call himself a dad; only to get killed because some power-hungry old bastard that wanted a woman and her kid!?

Holding onto his rage, he said, "Let's go find you mom." He was going to get Chris and his mom out of this hellhole no matter what, otherwise his buddy's death really would have been pointless. His superiors weren't going to get away with this; he'd make sure.

As he turned a corner along the hall he came face to face with a very pissed off looking group of soldiers, he glared at them, "Let us pass, now."

"Agent! I dunno what hell you think you're doing," snapped a person of a higher rank than him. "But, you'd better stop."

Grey gave them a vexed look, "Get out of our way." He felt anger building up inside him. "NOW!" teeth bared in rage he thought about launching himself at them, to hurt them; but before he could act on the thought Chris acted on his own.

Chris's head lifted from his damp shoulder and turned towards the soldiers, his eyes were deep, dark black, "Go away!" the group of five were thrown backwards along the hall and only stopped flying when they hit the wall. He sniffled; turned to Grey and said, "I want my mommy now."

Grey swallowed warily as the child's black eyes stared into his, "Whatever you want, kid."

He hitched the boy up further to keep him from slipping, "You know where she is?"

He didn't reply for a second, he sniffled again at first and mumbled, "Yes." He hiccoughed and pointed down the hall. "I'll tell you where she is."

"Lead the way," the quicker they got to the boy's mother the better.

SGC

Sub-level 28

Xander looked around at the boring grayish walls, he rolled his eyes; "Would it kill you people to redecorate the place a bit; it's in serious need of some colour." And he wasn't kidding, apart from a two stripes of colour that ran along the floor everything was grayish-pale green and didn't get any prettier further down.

In his peripheral vision he saw Colonel O'Neill turn to him, he said, "That's what I keep saying; you think this is bad- try eating the food here, I mean THAT'S okay but the MREs…oy."

The younger man scoffed, "Sunnydale high cafeteria food probably tastes worse."

"Oh, really," Jack challenged, eyes brown eyes focused on his own.

Xander nodded, "We got snakes in ours once." That was an occasion he'd much rather forget; who likes eating snakes?…wasn't as bad as eating the pig, though.

"Ouch," the colonel winced. "How did ya manage that?"

He smirked, "Hazards of livin' on a Hellmouth; crazy stuff is normal for us."

At least they weren't bickering anymore, they didn't trust them- nope, not even an iota of trust- but after they had been told about their new 'enemy' and had been debriefed on the basics of what had been going on the past several years they had begun to at least trust them not to be the bad guys…or well, it might have taken a little longer to convince them that SG1 weren't completely nuts first- it had taken a peek a Teal'c's 'Symbiote' to convince them that aliens were, in fact, real.

You know, because apparently demons and the supernatural aren't enough; their lives had effectively become stranger…

He, Buffy, Dawn, Anya and Giles followed Sam, Jack and Teal'c up the stairway into the control room; he heard his fiancé complain loudly of the number of steps that were in the mountain as they trudged up them; finally, they passed the last step and were face-to-face with a huge window- and an even bigger ring; that was said to a 'Stargate'.

"Oh, a whole lot stranger," Xander breathed as he looked at the alien device. He noticed that Jack was smirking at his obvious amazement; the older man was clearly enjoying their introduction to the contraption.

"Wait 'till you see it in action," Jack said smugly; that received a curious glance from him as he wondered what the man was talking about.

He'd soon find out.

SGC

Sub-level 18

Daniel's Office

Daniel breathlessly lifted some papers from his desk in an effort to find the tablet, "C'mon, where are you?" his office was always so messy; it was hard to find what you were locking for in the piles of what Jack would call 'really old junk'.

Triumphantly, he snatched the prophecy from under a couple of sheets, glanced at it; then grabbed his notes and practically flew out of his office. His feet pounded along the ground as he ran along the hall which had pale-blue tunnel lights in it, he rounded the corner and muttered an apology to technician he almost collided with; he kept running.

He hoped that the tablet would be translated in time, before Willow did anything she would later regret.

SGC

Sub-level 27

After they had walked down the spiral stairway they had entered the briefing room; then a few minutes of silence followed. That is until Buffy spoke up and voiced her thoughts.

"So, you want us to translate this message thing," she said. "How will this help my friends?"

Xander wouldn't mind knowing the answer to that question, he doubted that the others would either.

They all turned as the door to the briefing room slammed open, Daniel rushed in holding what they assumed was the message and some notes; red in the face from so much running around, he walked over to the conference table and plunked down onto a seat as he placed the items onto the table.

Giles, ever the translator, ambled over to the items quickly with an expression of great curiosity on his face; he looked at it for a few moments and then said, amazed, "This is a demonic dialect, how did this end up on another…um, planet?"

"Beats me," said Jack. Xander seconded that response.

Giles alternated between looking at the notes and the tablet itself; obviously deep in thought, "I can translate this, just give me…a little time…" already sucked into the awesomeness that was lost on people like him, Jack and Buffy, he trailed off distractedly.

Xander looked out of the huge window, but he didn't see the stargate; he looked straight through it as he fell deep into thought; He was happy that they now had extra help to bring back Will and Chris and it helped that knew what they were all going up against; but he still didn't know how they were doing, he wondered if they were awake and waiting for them to come running in to save them- which wasn't a common occurrence these days because both of them could usually take care of themselves. But for the first time in a long time the two witches needed them.

He hoped they weren't too late.

White Room no. 02

Willow swallowed and coughed a little as her throat remained dry and painful, she looked around and was now acutely aware of the fact that she was, well, aware of where she was; she looked to the right of her and noticed an IV drip on her wrist; frowning, she telekinetically ripped the restraints off her and then reached over to pull the needle from her wrist.

She grimaced slightly when the action brought a rather painful twinge to her attention, "Hate needles," she mumbled to no one in particular. She sat up; now fully awake and jumped off the 'bed'. Which in actual fact had been a rather stupid thing to do; this thought occurred to her as she yelped in shock and dropped unceremoniously to the floor.

"How long have I been here?" groaned Willow as she sat upright. She huffed, "Stupid drugs."

She noticed something tickling at the edge of her mind; she examined it for a moment and then her eyes widened, "Chris."


	18. Chapter 18

Sudden Changes chapter 18

Sudden Changes chapter 18

/…/ indicates telepathic talking

'…' indicates reciting the prophecy

Giles studied the tablet intently; his index finger drifted down the text; he took his glasses of absentmindedly, "Near as I can figure, this passage where it says 'With the help of the sorcerer who turned away from the enlightenment, then returned,' means…" he paused as he started thinking. "I have no idea what it means."

He heard Daniel sigh and looked over at the younger man; he had dropped his head into his hands from where he was sitting at the table; generally looked the complete epithet of misery and despair.

When Giles looked away from him he noticed that Dawn was now at his side and was reading the tablet over his shoulder; he watched her for second and felt a slither of hope inside him as she, "Hmm-ed," before picking up his pen and moving it to the only sentence he'd managed to translate.

"Well, it's not 'sorcerer'….'witch'," she crossed out the word and replaced it and then started looking at the others. "Enlightenment?' it's 'light'."

Giles raised his eyebrows and checked it, "Well done, Dawn!" he and Willow had taught her well enough that the much younger girl even surpassed them in language and translating skills; the girl was brilliant at translating demon texts in the same way that Willow was at Maths (her ability to work with numbers was as good as- if not better than- a calculator.)

He'd witnessed Xander asking her, when they were still in high school, what the square-root of eight-hundred and forty-one was; she had answered barely a second after she was given the question: twenty-nine. Willow was a prodigy at maths as Dawn was at languages.

Dawn blushed at the praise, but she continued to look over the texts, "Not 'help'… 'protect' or 'protection'." She crossed out the word hope and replaced it with 'Protection'. "Umm."

A few minutes later she had the line, "With the protection of the witch who strayed from the light, then found her way back." She looked at him. "How does that sound?"

"Great," he said, then he frowned. "Who does the line speak of?" With the protection of the witch who….well, there was Amy Madison; to name one of a thousand! But she wouldn't protect anyone; except maybe Rack when he was alive- but only to get her fix. No, the line wasn't referring to Amy.

Dawn shook her head, "Maybe if we translate the rest of it we'll find out." She did have a good point.

"Right then," he said. "Let's get on with it."

"Okay," started Dawn firmly. "First line is… "Made….from, um….guilt…pain."

No, that didn't sound right.

Giles looked at it, "OH! Oh! Um, "'Born'… 'guilt' was correct but… 'grief' not 'pain'." He scribbled out the word and replaced it quickly.

Dawn nodded, "Okay, so we've got, "Born from-'…no, wait…um, 'of'. 'Born of…comfort?

The ex-librarian checked it, "'Solace'. 'Born of solace from grief and guilt.'"

Dawn swallowed, "That's the first line." Time to read on.

Daniel suddenly jumped up, "Oh! Um, I ah, I translated some of it myself- if you wanna look."

He handed Giles the notes; the older man took them and read, "Okay, um, well we've established that 'made' is actually 'born'." He continued reading on. "'He's' mean… 'he is', which I'm sure is the second line of the text." He jotted this down on his own notes.

Dawn looked over Giles's shoulder, " 'The one'… not wait, that would be 'first' not 'one'." She saw Giles writing that down; so she continued. " 'of the …second…,'" she paused in thought.

Daniel jumped up excitedly, "I-I've translated that word; it means, 'Generation'."

Dawn nodded, "That's right; okay, now we've got 'Born of solace from grief and guilt, he is the first of the second generation; with the protection of the witch who strayed from the light; then found her way back.'"

She looked at Giles, "That's all I got; it's about a quarter of the prophecy."

He sighed, "We've got a long way to go."

"'The determination'…I think that's it, 'of one man, turned'….no 'corrupted by…" she paused, still looking painstakingly over the words; then shook her head. "I got that word wrong; Okay, we've got 'The efforts of one man, corrupted by greed and…um," she turned to Giles.

Daniel tilted his head slightly, everyone who really knew him knew that this was his habit when he was debating something; then he bounced, "Oh, I got it! Arrogance."

Jack frowned, "Greed and arrogance, huh. Beginning to sound like anyone we know?" He looked at Daniel wryly.

"Kinsey," the archaeologist mumbled.

Something clicked in Giles's mind, "The prophecy is talking about Chris-

"We know that," muttered Buffy irritably.

He glared at the blonde and continued, "It's talking about Chris, this 'Kinsey' person…"

Jack jumped up from his chair angrily, "I knew that arrogant, aristocratic-assed, son-of-a-bitch had a part in this."

General Hammond nodded, "The President DID say he was up to something." He turned back to Giles. "Anymore of the prophecy?"

Giles jumped, "Oh, yes!" no good could come from getting distracted. "Okay, the seventh line." He looked at Daniel's notes, the younger man had translated two of the words in the line. "'Will try to…end…the, um, first…child's…life." Well, that was easier.

The eighth line, "'Will…'oh no, uh, 'thus causing-'

Dawn blinked and smirked, "Nope, 'bringing about the'."

Giles nodded, "Very good, Dawn. 'Bringing about the End of Days.'

Daniel smiled to himself; Giles knew that his notes had helped somewhat in the process of translating the tablet.

Dawn pointed to the text, "That says, 'by the...uh, the hands of the one with the-' god, Giles; this part's talking about Willow."

"Really?"

"Yes! If anyone's gonna be angry that someone's hurt Chris- it'll be Willow," she remarked anxiously. She reread the text, "The one with anger and vengeance,' just like when Tara died."

"Well, yes," cut in Anya. "She was all about the vengeance." Then she froze with worry. "You know I just thought; If Willow tried to end the world when Tara died what's she gonna do when Chris does?"

Dawn glared at the ex-demon, "He's not going to, we won't let him die- not like we did-" she stopped talking and shook her head. "Let's not get into this right now, okay."

Anya shifted slightly, now looking guiltily at the floor; Xander put an arm around her shoulders and hugged her.

Dawn suddenly brightened, "Hey! We've almost finished translating." Eagerly, she once again concentrated on the text work. "Okay, the tenth line…hey, Daniel's translated two words in this; 'Hope'…I think that's the word, anyway. 'Hope comes in the-'…um…Giles?"

Both Giles and Daniel looked over the text again; the younger man got it first, "'Disguise' at least I think that's what it says."

Dawn nodded, then she remembered that they hadn't even found out where Chris and Willow were being hidden; she fidgeted nervously, "Um, Giles?"

Giles looked at her blankly for second, "Yes?"

"Shouldn't we get to work on the locater spell?"

"The location spell, right Dawn, you and Daniel will work on the texts," he turned to Anya. "Anya, you and I need to do the locator spell to find Chris and Will; the prophecy won't help us find them, it'll only allow us to help."

Anya nodded, "Uh huh, and we can't help if we don't know where they are."

As Dawn continued to go over the texts Giles looked at the general, "Is there a quiet place we can perform a location spell?"

The general nodded quickly, "Yes, you can use my office."

Giles looked at him surprised.

"I don't want any of the personnel here walking in on what you'll be doing, they'll see you as a hostile, alien threat," the balding man explained as he saw the man's befuddled look.

"Right," said Giles, he looked at Anya. "Come on, Anya." He grabbed one of the bags from the collection of their luggage and walked towards the open door of the general's office, he waved Anya in and then closed the door.

"Have you got the things we'll need?" she asked, hopefully.

"Yes, of course," he replied. He withdrew several items and got to work on the spell.

* * *

Dawn's POV

Dawn allowed Daniel to look over her shoulder at the text that she was in the middle of translating; she sighed warily and reread the sentence, "'Hope comes in the disguise of a man…'" she trailed off after that.

The archaeologist looked at the text briefly, and then he stopped in shock, "Oh god, I recognize this…I-it looks similar to every text that I've ever read that has the words, 'ring of the gods' on it. The last part of the tenth line is 'ring of the gods'-"

The former Key grinned, "Which is the stargate, right?" he had mentioned a while ago that other races often refer to the stargate as 'the ring of the gods' or the 'Chappa'ai'.

"'Not once but twice,'" Dawn continued to translate. "He is the one who can only he...' no, that's not right. 'He is the one who alone can stop the…'" she squinted at the text. "Ah, I think this says 'blaze'…or it could be 'fire' the next part of the text says, 'revenge' no, that's not it… 'hell' maybe." No, that made NO sense whatsoever!

She sighed exasperatedly, "'He is the one who alone can stop the…blaze or fire…revenge' no! argh, that makes NO sense." Then she blinked and tapped her lips with a finger. "I'll check that again."

She the two words and mumbled, "Blaze, fire…revenge." She paused, thinking. "Fiery…fiery! That's the word!" Daniel looked closely at the text from over her shoulder.

"That's not 'revenge'," he scribbled out the word and rewrote a different word. "'Vengeance'"

Dawn nodded grinning, "'He is the one who alone can stop the fiery vengeance from…' uh, oh! 'swallowing…ENCOMPASSING!'"

Daniel jumped slight has she corrected herself a little too loudly, and right into his ear too.

"'From encompassing us all,'" she breathed out in relief as she finished it. "Okay, no we got it; now we can figure out what it means."

Daniel picked it up and stared reading it out loud, "'Born of solace from grief and guilt, he is the first of the second generation with the protection of the witch who strayed from the light, then found her way back. The efforts of one man, corrupted by greed and arrogance, will try to end the first child's life, thus bringing about the End of Days by the hands of one with anger and vengeance. Hope comes in the disguise of the man who first opened the ring of the gods, not once but twice. He is the one who alone can stop the fiery vengeance from encompassing us all.'"

Daniel touched his lip with his index finger for second, "Dawn? This is referring to Willow…isn't it, I mean Tara came into my dream and said that I had to stop Willow from losing control like she did last time."

Dawn nodded, he had a point; "Hey, Daniel?"

The man looked at her, "Yeah?"

"You are the guy that opened the stargate here on earth, right?" she asked hopefully.

Daniel nodded, then stopped, "Well, TECHNICALLY I didn't open it first-" oh god, not more science talk…get enough of that from Chris and Willow.

"I mean the first time in OUR lifetime, Daniel," she explained.

He blushed, "Right."

"But, you are right?"

He nodded blankly.

Dawn pointed a finger at the text that he had in his hands, "'Hope comes in the disguise of the man who first opened the ring of the gods' Daniel, this is definitely talking about you."

Daniel ran a hand through his hair, "Tara was right, I have to help them; the 'first of the second generation' it's talking about Chris and 'the witch that strayed from the light' sounds an awful lot like Willow to me."

Dawn thought for minute, So, that's what the prophecy will come down to; that Kinsey guy will hurt Chris, Willow's son, Willow'll flip out and-

Her thoughts were interrupted as the door slammed open, the rest of the occupants, who had been silent until then, jumped up and started asking questions.

Giles and Anya had just come through the door to the general's office, the others were questioning them on where Chris and Willow were.

Giles looked at Daniel and said, "The NID's base resides in a hospital that has just closed down; they must have set up shop in the building. It's on the outskirts of Colorado Springs."

General Hammond nodded, "Right then, SG1 you have a go."

Jack nodded, "We're gonna bring them both back." It was more directed at Daniel than anyone else.

The general continued, "You'll probably need help if the situation deteriorates; I'll send three SG Teams after you leave. Also a medical team, you can never be too thorough."

Jack frowned slightly, "With all due respect, sir. Why after?"

"Because we don't want to attract too much attention," replied the general. "We also don't want the NID personnel there to become aware of our intensions too soon."

Jack nodded agreeing.

Dawn looked at Daniel as they turned to exit the briefing room, for the first time since she'd met the man he had a look of hope in his eyes as well as the determination; as they walked out and then along the boring halls of the SGC she turned to him, "Chris is a lot like Willow, but now I think about it- you and your son have a lot in common."

He smiled, "Really, what's he like?"

She grinned, "Well, He LOVES his 'rocks' and then there's the languages and Egyptian mythology." Daniel echoed the grin as Jack, who had been listening in on the conversation muttered, "D'oh!"

* * *

NID Base

Agent Grey wondered for the billionth time, it seemed, how he had managed to get himself into the mess he was in as Chris had yet again amazed and scared him; at the moment the little boy was talking to himself.

"We're getting closer now, mommy," he said to thin air. "Are you okay? You've got owies." He eyes were now downcast as he said this; he fiddled with Grey's collar worriedly, the man felt a glimmer of protectiveness for the boy as he realized how physically fragile a four-year-old really was- the boy had, amusingly enough, chosen to shake his hand as a thanks for helping him and, well, he was little surprised at how tiny and delicate the child's hand was.

He hadn't been around a kid since his baby sister had died of cancer when he was thirteen; she had only been eight. He could still remember how frail she was back then before the disease had taken her away from him and his parents.

Not for the first time, he felt hatred, anger and disbelief as he wondered how on earth his superiors could hurt an innocent child; yeah, he was powerful- in the magic sort of way- but he was just a kid. Those bastards had NO right to do those thing they did, he was just glad that he and Serena had saved him in time before Doctor Bryce had had his way with him; Grey had no doubt that the sorry excuse for a man would have tortured the kid.

"I wanna see you too, mommy," said Chris happily. "I'm fine, now; Mr. Grey's helping me." He frowned a moment later. "No, no, mommy- he's nice, he saved me from the bad man….yes…Serena did too, but…" he trailed off looking deeply saddened.

Grey hugged the boy comfortingly and yet again felt the protective urges inside him as Chris wound his slightly skinny, pale arms around his neck; his red hair brushed against the man's neck.

"Mommy? Just come quick, 'kay?" he mumbled into Grey's shoulder. "I miss you."

/I know, sweetie/ Willow communicated back. /We'll see each other really soon, okay/

She knew that Chris was talking instead of thinking; he had a habit of communicating with her using telepathy but while she used her thoughts to talk to him he used his mouth instead, she still needed to teach him how to stop the habit.

After Chris had mentioned her "Owies" she'd realized that she hadn't yet gotten the chance to heal them up yet.

/Okay, Chris. Just be careful around this Grey person, okay?/

/Okay, mommy, I will/ his voice sounded in her head.

Willow stopped walking for a moment and concentrated on drawing energy from the planet; she felt the bones in her arm relocate and mend themselves; the numerous cuts started healing. Veins resealed to where they were before; skin knitted back together and the raw redness around the wounds vanished.

After most of the healing was finalized she kept moving; she couldn't waste too much time.

She could feel him getting closer to her, she jumped and turned as shouting drew her attention; several armed soldiers ran towards her pointing guns; she glared at the men and gestured towards the weapons they were holding.

The soldiers gaped and backed away as their guns disintegrated into dust in their hands; she glared at them, "You're lucky I've got more self-control than I had five years ago." She muttered "Sleep," under her breath and watched emotionlessly as they collapsed to the ground.

She had other people that could use a lesson in pain, the darker part of her soul couldn't wait for a chance to burn them all up; fortunately, Willow had enough control to push that part of her away.

Willow walked around a corner and, after seeing that no one was guarding the hall, she continued to draw closer to her son; she could feel them getting closer.

* * *

NID Base

A few floors above

Robert Kinsey had the look of an insane nut-case that was just about to crack, "How?" he said through gritted teeth. He had just flown in several hours ago and already things were going down the drain for him. "You imbeciles!"

Now he had two powerful forces looking for him; he had no doubt that if the two former-hostages caught up with him he could kiss his life goodbye. And he couldn't die, he was too important to; the SGC was still under Hammond's and O'Neill's control and their goodie-goodie, lax methods for procuring alien technology would be the deaths of everyone on Earth; forget about the other planets- THEY lived in this one, HE did!

Colonel Franks gave the man an irritated look, "Now! See here-

The white-haired man ignored him, "I leave the hostiles in your care for ONE moment, and you-"

"Well, what did you expect?" said Captain Lionel exasperated. "They're two very powerful beings; now I think about it, the escape of the two hostiles was quite inevitable." The thirty-something-year old woman sat down thoughtfully.

Inevitable? INEVITABLE!? By god's! Kinsey growled incensed. Wonderful, he was stuck in this office with an annoyingly-thoughtful woman and idiot of a colonel; and then there was this office, HIS temporary office which wasn't fit for a criminal let alone a powerful, political figure such as himself!

The office they were currently in was nothing spectacular, it was small; only had a desk and a few chairs in it. For Kinsey, it was an added insult. He stomped around the office like a tyrant; red-faced and glowered at them hatefully. "I want those two recaptured."

And then HE'D do the torturing; creatures like that had NO place on his planet, it was preposterous that they had ever been aloud to walk free and undisturbed for such a long time. They were no better than any other alien threat that his nation had tried to hold at bay.

Franks scoffed, "Are you insane, go out there and face something that can kill us without lifting a finger?"

Kinsey went a rather scary shade of red, "I am a powerful man, colonel! They WILL heed to my will…or they'll be confronted with the US Army, the air force, the Pentagon; HELL, the big man himself- the President!"

Franks and Lionel looked at each other with disbelief written all over their faces; the woman shook her head and said, "Sir, I think it would be best for all of us if we just let them both go."

WHAT!? "Don't be stupid, captain!" he snapped at her. "You do anything to compromise what I'm trying to do and I'll have you locked up in federal prison so fast you're stomach will STILL be trying to find its way back to you by the end of your extremely long sentence!" the woman just gave him a cold look.

Kinsey snapped his head up to Franks's, "Anything you want to add to that, Franks!?" He'd better not, he had enough on his plate without having to expect treason from these two morons; and here he thought that soldiers were supposed to be fearless. So much for that assumption.

He glared at the man coolly and said, "Tell your men to bring them both to me- either alive or dead, I don't care- tell them that letting them both get away is not negotiable." Having them dead was better that not having them at all- at least he could still study them and see what makes them so different from other people.

He shooed them out quickly and sat back in his chair; How had those two managed to escape? They were both sedated for god's sake…unless. Kinsey leapt over to the Intercom and clicked it on, "Personnel, be on the look out for suspicious activity from any other agents! The two former hostages could be receiving inside help from one of our people."

They hadn't helped themselves, they couldn't have; he was looking at a betrayal probably more than one agent, too.

* * *

Edge of Colorado Springs

The dark silence was already filling the streets; the quiet was punctuated by two barking dogs and a screech of tires from two cars that had just pulled up behind a desolate-looking building. The cars were parked under some bushes, then out came nine people; they were quiet and were obviously used to sneaking around.

The youngest girl turned to the middle-aged man with the glasses, she said, "Giles? This definitely looks like the place." She pressed her hands against the brick wall and peered around the corner for any possible threats. There were three, damn.

Giles nodded, "I agree, let's hope we can get them both out without too much trouble."

Dawn scoffed and muttered, "Yeah, because we're SO good at NOT getting into trouble." Oops, better keep her voice quieter.

Giles glared at her, "Sarcasm, Dawn. The lowest form of humor." She rolled her eyes.

Jack looked at him, "Hey!"

Dawn shushed him and ignored his insulted look, "There are three other people around the corner, I just checked."

"Weren't we going 'round the back?" asked Jack in a low voice.

The girl sighed, "Do you know how many of these people have watched movies that ALWAYS have people going around the back way just because they think it's the safest? It might have been the safest before the 'going around the back' thing became a cliché!"

The colonel nodded and muttered, "I hate clichés."

"Let's go then."

They ran away from the back of the building and towards the front.

* * *

NID Base

Grey held the boy tighter as he started struggling suddenly, "Careful, kid. You'll end up falling."

Chris grinned at him and pointed to the corner at his left side, "Mommy's right over there, hurry up!"

How the kid knew this was beyond Grey, still; they were going that way anyway- Whoa, okay, "You were right," he said as the boys mom walked around the corner. He began to walk faster, the quicker they were away from this place, the better.

"Chris!" she whispered, loud enough for Grey and Chris to hear as she caught sight of them. She ran over as quickly as she could.

Grey lowered the little boy to the floor as he struggled out of his arms; as soon as the boy was standing he was running towards the redheaded woman; arms outstretched and a big grin stretching across his face from ear to ear, "Mommy!"

In the corner of his peripheral vision his noticed someone stepping up behind him, quickly he span around- panic already shooting down his spine, he didn't have a gun to defend either himself or the boy and his mom- and saw that Doctor Bryce stood there glaring hatefully and pointing a gun in the direction of Willow, Chris and himself, "You think I'd let you get away?"

Willow's head snapped up from her son as he was still running towards her, an expression of dread all over her now-pale face; Chris stopped and spun around in fear; Grey shouted and ran towards the two hoping he wasn't too late.

He pulled the trigger.


	19. Chapter 19

Chapter 19

Chris's POV

I grinned happily as I felt her coming towards me, we were all safe now; the bad men couldn't hurt Mr. Grey and it couldn't hurt him or his mommy. Not now.

I struggled out of Grey's arms, "Careful, kid. You'll end up falling." He said.

I didn't care, I just wanted to see my mommy, I pointed to where I knew she'd be, "Mommy's right over there, hurry up!"

And then she was there, right in front of me; the man that was carrying me was starting to walk faster. I know why, this place wasn't a nice place to be in.

"You were right," said Grey, he really sounded surprised.

Of course I'm right! Silly man, didn't he know that I'm a witch? Funny grown-ups!

I looked at my mommy, "Chris!" she whispered loudly. I couldn't stop the grin from showing on my face; not that I'd want to. I licked my lips, still smiling happily as she started running towards me.

I wriggled around wanting to get free and felt grateful when my friend set me down on the floor; as soon as I touched the floor I was running towards my mommy as fast as I could; and it really was fast, I missed her very much and I almost thought that I wouldn't ever see her again.

Reaching my arms out, I ran forwards and waited for her to pick me up and hug me; I really wanted a hug 'cause I still felt scared even though me, and everyone else I care about, was away from those people that hurt us.

I was really close and wanting a hug now more than ever, "Mommy!"

So close.

"You think I'd let you get away?"

Fear. That was all I could feel just then, the fear that made you feel like you had just got a bucket of ice-cold water poured slowly and painfully down you when all you wanted to do was to get warmer. It was weird because even though I was scared stiff I was still running; I'd better stop.

I saw mommy looking away from me and over my head, I knew she was looking at Dr. Meanie; I looked around quickly and wondered what he was going to do next.

He was pointing a gun at me; I remember what the gun does, it killed Serena. I won't ever get to see her again, now it was pointing at me and all I want to do is curl up into a ball so it wouldn't hurt.

I heard Grey shout and saw him turn towards me a second before a 'BANG' hurt my ears yet again; it was the 'bang' that made me realize that I would go to sleep for a very long time; I wouldn't see my mommy ever again.

I couldn't breathe as Grey got in the way of…whatever it was that would kill me, he came at me and jerked as he got hit.

What happened after that was very confusing, I felt very cold inside and I looked down to see red messing up my PJs; my legs felt like jellO and I couldn't see Grey on the floor anymore. I could just see the ceiling above me and the coldness of whatever it was I was lying on.

Then I stopped thinking, a deep coldness wrapped around me; I couldn't feel anything else.

* * *

Grey gritted his teeth against the unbelievable pain swirling inside him, all over him. He clutched his stomach tightly; he knew he'd just been shot, he'd been expecting it as he had turned away from Dr. Bryce.

He raised his head from the ground and looked up, from his position on the floor all he could see was the little boy's bare feet which were motionless. He could just about see the redheaded woman kneeling besides her son; head down, hair covering her face.

He could see her pressing her hands onto the boy; then he saw Dr. Bryce walk calmly over him and towards the two redheads but not before kicking him in the stomach; a scream erupted from his throat before he could stop it, "B…bastard," he muttered.

Did Chris get hit? Holy shit, he had to have done; why else would the boy be lying on the ground? No, Serena was dead, there was no way he was going to let Chris go too.

Grey used every bit of strength he could muster and pushed himself up until he was balancing on his elbows; pain sliced at his stomach eliciting a choke of pain, he pushed himself forwards and tried to push the pain back.

Using his military training he could do just that, he knew he had to act fast; he saw Bryce point the gun at the back of the redheaded woman's head; he took in a deep breath.

As the room swayed he gathered up the last of his strength and leapt up, he threw himself forwards with an angry yell; he hit Bryce's legs, wrapped his arms around them and used his momentum to carry them both down to the ground.

He felt a glimmer of satisfaction as he heard the man's head connect with the ground hard, he hoped he'd knocked the douche-bag out.

Grey dragged himself forwards even as his strength continued to deplete quickly.

* * *

Willow pressed a hand to her son's chest to try to stop the bleeding, her head span as she hyperventilated. She shook her head as she looked at Chris's too-pale features, he was breathing far too slowly.

The bullet had sliced straight across his tiny chest leaving a gaping wound in its wake; blood flowed freely under and over Willow's hand.

"Chris, open your eyes," she pleaded terrified as she held his head with her free hand. "Please baby, open your eyes."

She concentrated, not noticing a light above her head as it shattered, /Chris, can you hear me?/

Nothing.

/Chris!?/ Desperation cooled the blood in her veins as this yielded the same response.

Nothing.

She could feel the powerful force inside her bubbling under the surface; she ignored it and focused on her son, "Not again." This couldn't be happening again, not after last time….s'not fair.

Willow sobbed as Chris's head lolled to the side, a dead weight. She gritted her teeth, dead? Like Tara…exactly like Tara.

She looked up, breathing still ragged, and saw Dr. Bryce pushing himself to his knees and wincing like the pathetic little nothing she knew he was; a pathetic little nothing that had no right to be here when her innocent little boy was dead.

Blood screamed in her ears drowning out all other noise as she stared at him, loathing, grief and rage clouded her vision in a haze of red as she struggled to breathe around the raw emotions.

She saw him kick Chris's friend over to one side; the body flopped uselessly away from Bryce, dark blood soaked his shirt around his abdomen. The bullet had gone straight through and had hit Chris.

A pool of fire burned at her stomach as she turned her attention back to Bryce, her son's body fell away from her as she slowly climbed to her feet; still staring at him blankly.

Bryce looked at her and went white with fear, "Oh, oh shit." He looked around wildly as she blinked at him dully; the flat expression on her white face belied the stark fury tearing at her psyche.

Her hand shot out, seemingly of its own free will, and expelled a flurry of energy at the object of her rage as he made a dive for his lost gun. He went flying back before he'd even touched it.

Guns, it was always the guns!

She took a step forward as the man, and she used that term loosely, scrambled to his feet while still desperately trying to put as much distance between them as possible.

Well, that was fine by her. She didn't need to be right next to the bastard to hurt him.

To kill him.

Willow bared her teeth in a snarl and let rip.

Everything around her exploded.

* * *

Xander's blood froze in his veins as the ground he and the others were standing on jerked and shook violently, he gulped and wondered what had happened.

No, he knew what was happening. He knew who'd died, he knew who was going to pay for it.

Everyone.

"Holy shit," muttered Jack in foreboding. "What the hell is that?"

Xander looked at Daniel grimly, "Willow."

Daniel's pale face contorted with horror, fear and anger, he grabbed his hair and tugged, "No!"

Sam's eyebrows furrowed in confusion, "How could Willow-"

Xander shook his head, "We gotta go, NOW!" How could this be happening again? What were the PTB thinking, how could they be that stupid?

It was happening all over again.

"Good lord," Giles muttered, dread stained his words.

Well put, Giles.

Xander took off running, the others followed.

All wondering what was going to happen next, all terrified of finding out.

* * *

Chris POV

Everything was bright, I screwed my eyes shut against the light. I felt very strange, light and floaty but there was also something else.

Darkness swirled around me, a faint anger inside me; it felt so odd.

How could everything be bright, but dark at the same time? That was silly.

I felt faintly confused as I started feeling lighter and lighter; I didn't want to feel lighter, I feel further away from mommy. I don't want to further away. Where is she?

/Mommy!?/

Nothing, not even a whisper. Where is she?

Where am I?

I looked at the darkness around me, I couldn't see it; but I know it's there. I looked at it; it was dark and angry; it made me think of mommy when the Macalo demons attacked us ages ago. I was real young then, but I couldn't forget that.

It felt like angry-mommy, I like happy-mommy better but any mommy was better than no mommy at all; so I tried to grab it. My arms were very heavy though, can't move them…hey, I'm getting lighter.

Don't wanna get lighter.

I felt the darkness close in around me, maybe it was eating me; it's everywhere! But it's mommy.

I didn't fight the choking darkness as it wrapped itself around me like my favorite blanket when the night gets real cold. But it didn't make me feel warm and safe.

Just cold and bad.


	20. Chapter 20

Chapter 20

Willow smirked and waggled her finger at the several soldiers circling her, at the moment some of them looked like they wanted to run for hills; whilst others were stupid enough to think that they could take her on, "Soldiers…so lame."

She watched them coldly as some of the soldiers aimed their guns a little better towards her, she blinked as one of the soldier broke rank and ran in the other direction. "Poor little boys, so out of your depth."

Another soldier then followed his comrade back down the hall after he'd muttered a curse; he hurried turned the corner and flew out of sight with the sickening feeling of having the woman's too-bright eyes on him the entire time.

"Stand down!" a young soldier yelled. He was gritting his teeth and glaring at her with more fear than anger.

Willow looked at the soldier, he looked to be in his early to mid-twenties; younger than her, foolish and easily led. She smiled slightly, a smile that had none of the usual warmth, as she wondered if the boy was incredibly brave or very stupid, "Y'know, I would but I have an 'elsewhere' to be, so…"

The boy fired abruptly, his green eyes wide with fear; his eyes widened further as the bullets failed to hit his target, they had stopped in midair almost a foot away from her; he gulped audibly and looked at her.

With an eerily calm expression on her face she inclined her head slightly; pursed her lips and shook a finger at him, "Shame on you." The bullets tumbled to the floor, horribly loud in the deafening silence.

With his mouth open in shock and horror the green-eyed boy stared at the bullets and then at her; he took a step back, still watching her and waited- unable to move- to see what would happen next.

"Open fire!" yelled one of the other soldiers, a middle-aged dark-haired man. The soldiers, except the youngest one, immediately complied and sprayed the bullets towards her.

She just blinked in a seemingly calm manner as the bullets rained down upon the floor yet again, she frowned a little and looked at them all studiously, "Sleep."

As they slumped to the floor like rag dolls she shook her head, "Gotta go and fry some nice little chickens." With that, she stepped over the snoring soldiers and walked on silently.

* * *

Rupert Giles slowed to a stop as he caught sight of two bodies lying motionless in front of him and his companions; he felt the colour drain from his face.

He remained unresponsive when he felt another person's shoulder brush up against his own; he knew, by the glasses and height, who it was. He wondered, vaguely, what was going through Daniel Jackson's mind; he found that he almost didn't care.

The boy he'd known since birth, had seen grow up into a small child; who he thought of as his only grandchild was dead. He stared at Chris, or rather his shell, and felt numb; this little boy wasn't dead, how could he be?

No, the Powers That Be would never allow that to happen; it was preposterous; unthinkable…and yet, here they all stood; staring at the still, tiny body of Christopher Rosenberg.

How could they let this happen?

Oh, god. Willow, it was all just like Tara. All over again…oh, god.

* * *

Jack felt sick, no he felt worse than that. He felt the box at the back of his mind begin to open; the box that held everything of his son. About that day when he'd let his family down in the worst way.

He looked at the tiny, little boy; his best friend's son, and he saw Charlie. He was back at his old house when everything had gone wrong. He was back in his bedroom where Charlie lay, blood soaking his chest where the bullet, from his gun, had penetrated his left lung.

Blood had been sprayed on the wall behind him before he'd collapsed to the carpeted floor, his brown eyes had still been open when Jack had fell to the floor beside the boy. He had choked out something that was unintelligible to him, the blood that had filled his lungs were forcing out any and all oxygen that was needed.

Jack had tried to stop the blood-flow in a futile attempt to save him and he'd seen Charlie blink up at him one last time before the light in his eyes died out forever. Along with his own.

He felt a hand grip his shoulder, the touch brought him out of his head; his worst memory and back to reality where, it seemed, yet another young child- another family- had been destroyed by a man and a gun.

The touch had been from Teal'c who was looking at him knowingly, he shifted his reddened-eyes away from his 'brother' and saw that his best friend was walking towards Chris; the so-called 'Scooby gang' did the same.

The rest of SG1 hung back to give them all some room, as much as they knew that Chris wasn't in anyway related to them, with the exception of Daniel, it didn't make them feel any better know that they'd never as much as spoken to the boy.

But this was a child, he'd just been shot by some crazy psycho for being different; and as much as the military training had taught them they couldn't remain detached. It would be impossible…for them anyway.

He heard a choke behind him as saw the Sam had abandoned the attempt to be cold and emotionless and was close to tears; he had to give her credit for at least trying to hold them back.

Teal'c gripped her shoulder firmly, her only link to reality which was telling her that it was all real; that there were people in this building that needed to be punished.

Jack gritted his teeth as he felt the cold flame of rage burn at the pit of his stomach, he knew that this Willow girl was going to nuke the bastard that had done this, as much as he knew he try to stop that from happening he really couldn't bring himself to give a damn.

Whoever had done this brought it on themselves; he'd say let 'em have it. Hell, screw that; he'd help.

"I believe the prophecy was correct," intoned Teal'c with a hint of sadness. "WillowRosenberg will seek retribution and in doing so she will bring destruction down upon everyone on this planet."

The colonel just looked at the dead kid, so the world was gonna end? There would have been a time when he'd jumped up to save this miserable planet…when people like Kinsey made him wonder why he even bothered.

At this time he wondered whether this world deserved to be saved. Did it? Looking at the bloody puddle under the kid; he made up his mind, no this world did not deserve to be live.

The Powers that Be obviously thought so, or they wouldn't have let this happen; then again he'd always thought that there was no such thing as gods or higher powers. Well, maybe there were; but higher powers that CARED, no such thing.

"Good, I say let it happen," growled Jack incensed.

Teal'c looked at him, eyebrow raised in disapproval…maybe.

"Hey!"

Jack looked away from the body and saw that Buffy was tending to a bleeding soldier; was he the guy that had killed Daniel's son?

"This guy's still alive," she informed almost tonelessly. "In a way that means he's almost dead, anyway."

To Jack's surprise Daniel leapt up from his kneeling position beside his son and threw himself onto the soldier; he drew his fist back and-

"DanielJackson!" boomed Teal'c warningly. "I do not think this man is the culprit!" He didn't? Jack sure as hell did!

The archaeologist didn't stop his assault on the soldier, Buffy had to drag him off the man as he thrashed around; amazingly the slight girl had no problem in restraining the much bigger, rage-crazed, man.

"W-what're you talking about?" asked Dawn who was leaning against the wall unsteadily. Her face was white with shock and tears were shining in her dull eyes as she looked at the Jaffa.

Teal'c strode over to the fallen man and knelt down beside him, he looked up and said, "If this man was indeed the culprit WillowRosenberg would have not left him alive." Then he glanced from the boy and then back to the soldier, "Also, the bullet seems to have gone through this man before hitting the child. I could be incorrect but I believe this man was trying to help them."

Dawn looked up from the floor and then pushed herself away from the wall; she walked to the man and started checking his pulse, "I-It's faint, unsteady; he needs medical attention now."

Jack grasped his radio and said, "We need a med team in here now." He released the contraption and waited for a reply.

Come on, haven't got all day.

"Medical team has already been sent," the voice said over the radio. "They should be there by now."

"Janet!" Sam ran passed Jack suddenly.

He turned and saw that the doc was already there along with her team, "What've we got- oh god." She caught sight of the dead boy.

He could still hear Daniel's ragged breathing as the blonde woman held him down; it was easy to tell that the man was still enraged and struggling to get at the soldier guy; the soldier guy that was probably going to die if-

"Doc!" snapped Jack, they really needed to act fast. "This soldier's been shot in the stomach; pretty sure he's a good guy." He'd better be; not that that would deter Janet, she would treat him simply under the grounds that he was now her patient.

Janet was visibly shaken but shook herself enough to be able to work, she looked at the soldier for a moment; taking in all the blood, before turning back, "We need to get him back to the mountain NOW, or he won't make it."

He didn't want burst her bubble but this guy looked like he fucked either way, a trip to the SCG would take too long. Then again, if the guy did help kill Chris then good riddance.

He jerked slightly as he felt someone push past him; it was the older guy- Giles, probably going to help the doc. The guy had a blank look on his face; shock probably.

The colonel's eyes narrowed in puzzlement, "Uh-

'Kay, maybe not…

Giles walked passed the doc; stooped down next to Dawn and grabbed her hand, "Dawn, we should-

The girl nodded, face damp with tears that were now controlled, for now at least, "I-I know, I think it'll work- we've really go nothing to loose with this guy."

Jack had to agree with the kid, just getting him out the damn warehouse would take too long never mind the SGC; but what could they do? Sing prayers?

Janet glared at them, "This man's going to die if we don't get him the proper medical attention he needs!"

He actually agreed on that, what were they doing? "I'm going to have to agree with Fraiser here, what're you-

Giles glared at them, "If you wouldn't mind keeping your questions to yourself for a while, that would be wonderful. We have another way of helping the man but we need total silence for this!"

Okaaay, tetchy…of course the guy was upset he'd just seen the son of close friend dead on the ground.

He felt a pang of cold sadness, two kids dead by two guns. Shaking himself out of it he looked around; he needed a cool head for this.

The he frowned, talking about close friends with Willow, where was Xander? He looked around and felt his heart sink as he saw the young man cradling Chris's body to him; his head was down and he was muttering something; Jack couldn't make it out.

Bile rose up in his throat as more flashes of Charlie's limp, blood-soaked body flitting in and out of his mind. Poor kid. As soon as they found the bastard that had done this he was gonna help kill him.

Daniel started shouting, he turned to his best friend and he felt a pained expression etch onto his features; he watched as Buffy used one hand to cover his mouth and the other to grab his friend's hair and put her face closer to his, mere centimeters apart.

Sam ran to Daniel's side and checked him over before just looking at him uncertainly, she glanced at Buffy; Jack nodded inwardly. Sam felt as 'Out of her depth' as he did, they didn't know anything about these people or what they did. Yeah, he knew about the mojo-magic thing that Chris and Willow had going for them; but that was mostly it.

Jack went over to Giles and Dawn, "What the hell are you about to do?"

Dawn gave him an unfriendly look, "We're trying to help this guy-

In the background he heard Buffy talking to Daniel in a low, no-nonsense tone.

"Calm down. You. Need. To. Calm. Down. That soldier didn't hurt Chris, he tried to save him. We need to get to Willow NOW and we can't do that until you CALM DOWN!" She shouted in his face. Normally a shout would have just made a guy angrier but the shout was devoid of anger, it was a loud, dead tone.

-so, can you just make sure that that Frasier woman doesn't interrupt us?" finished Dawn, then she turned away from him.

Confused, the middle-part of her statement had been lost in the shouting, he turned to look behind him and saw Janet walking towards them; then he knew what they were going to do and what Dawn had meant.

He grabbed Janet firmly as she made a move for the soldier, he cringed inwardly as the doctor glared at him furiously, "Doc, these guys know what they're doing."

"They can't DO anything without any medical-"

Jack interrupted her, "Janet, call me crazy but I THINK these two can help the guy." These guys weren't normal…maybe they had not-so-normal methods of treating gunshot wounds.

"What-

"Just trust me," he implored her. If there's one thing he'd learned over the years at the SGC was that sometimes their ways of dealing with things weren't the best and that other beings often had more effective methods than them.

He gripped the doc's arm, he knew that she was on the borderline between staying put and running to help…which might not actually help any of them. He turned back to the other nurses, "Stay put, that's an order."

Janet glared at him.

He hoped his decision to stop Janet from interfering wouldn't backfire.

* * *

Willow paused, then she smiled darkly. She could feel them; they'd better not get in her way. If they tried to stop her they'd get a nasty surprise; no one was going to stop her from killing the people responsible for Chris's death.

If they tried, she'd kill them.

The soldier at her feet, wrapped in demon tentacles, stared up at her with more than a little fear; Willow smirked slightly, her eyes bright and shiny with the absence of human sanity.

* * *

Jack stared at them in silent shock; they'd done it. He stared, along with his colleagues and friends, at the moving form of the previously-dead soldier.

"Not so dead anymore," he muttered under his breath. He watched as the man, still lying down and injured, blinked up at them.

"Chris?" he ground out around the pain. "Is he…okay?" Dawn pulled up the shirt and saw that the wound had filled and half-healed, but it was still painful and life-threatening.

He wanted to know if Chris was okay? "He's…not okay, he's dead."

He watched as a pained expression contorted the man's pale face; maybe he wasn't the bad guy, maybe…

"What's your name, kid?" Jack asked.

"Agent Duncan Grey, sir," he replied after a few moments; the kid then grimaced. "They got Serena, now they got Chris too."

"Serena?"

"Agent Serena Ryan, she helped Chris get out of that room," he replied, then a guilty look came over his face. "After I'd persuaded her to help me help Chris and Willow; I should have done it alone."

Shit, rage built up even more inside Jack as he realized that these assholes had killed yet another person who, by the sounds of it, was just trying to do the right thing, "It's not your fault, but we need you to help catch the mother-fu…people responsible for this."

Grey nodded, "What d'you n….need," he groaned in pain as he clutched his stomach.

Jack called Janet over to them and then turned back to the agent, "Where did Willow go?"

Grey grimaced before answering, "Last I saw, Bryce ran away from Willow. He ran past me." He jerked his hand behind him.

Jack frowned, "Bryce?"

"Doctor Harry Bryce," he breathed around the pain as Janet prodded the wound and looked at it. "He…he was guy that shot Serena, Chris and I; and I'm pretty sure that he was the one mistreating Willow and Chris when he tried to experiment on them."

"And this Bryce guy?" he gestured in an attempt to get the man to elaborate.

Janet moved Grey onto a stretcher.

"Willow killed him," he stated flatly. "Blew him into a million dust particles; a little unfortunate…I wanted a little go a him too…she's really pissed off.

Jack nodded, he didn't blame her in the slightest, "So, this Bryce guy's dead, anyone else she'd want to go after?"

Grey snorted as the doctor lifted him and the stretcher up, "Just about everyone involved; didn't kill me though…guess she's sane enough to know who needs to go down. Most of the soldiers here are trying to bring her down…that's why it's kinda quiet here."

As the nurses wheeled him down the hall he suddenly shouted, "And, uh, I heard a few days ago maybe that Kinsey was responsible for those two being brought in…last I heard he was flying over to this place, I'm pretty sure he's in this building…a few floors above this one. We're only on the first or second floor at the moment."

Jack nodded at the guy as he was taken away back to the ambulance, "We'll get the bastard don't worry, we're not sitting on this one."

The soldier nodded and was then taken out of Jack's sight. The colonel winced as the other stretcher, holding Chris's body, was obviously about to be taken in the same direction as Grey's; Xander had an expression of rage and grief on his face as he watched the child disappear.

Buffy and Sam were holding onto Daniel's arms, ready to restrain him if need be, all three of them had the same expressions on their faces- all in varying degrees of anger and pain.

Teal'c stepped up beside Jack after he'd watched the two stretchers being carried away and said, "I suggest we make haste and stop WillowRosenberg before she makes a decision she will most likely regret later on."

How would she regret killing the bastards that shared the responsibility in Chris's murder? He voiced this question to his friend incredulously.

"I do not think she will take any pleasure from taking lives anymore than she did the last time," he intoned as the others in the hall drew closer to them. "Retribution does nothing but to serve to make the executioner feel emptier than before."

"As much as hate to agree," started Xander darkly. "I think Chuckles is right."

Chuckles? Jack glanced at Teal'c and saw that the Jaffa had the ghost of an expression of perplexity on his mostly blank face.

"'Chuckles?'" repeated Teal'c.

Xander just shook his head, "Doesn't matter-

Teal'c raised an eyebrow.

-point is, I agree. The last time Willow killed a human for revenge she only felt worse, we have to stop her. Like we did last time."

Daniel glared, "I'll help her kill him."

"Daniel! That'll just make you feel worse," Sam said as she gripped his arm. Then she looked at everyone. "How'd you stop her last time?"

Buffy sighed, "We didn't, Xander did. Don't you already know this?"

Sam blinked, "Just wanted to be sure."

Jack stood in front of Daniel and glared at him, but there was an absence of anger at the man, "Daniel, you translated that prophecy yourself; you know what you can and CAN'T do. Right?"

The archaeologist glared back at him for a few moments, "I'll try, but I'm not making any promises; they killed a child and I KNOW they need to pay."

Jack grabbed his arms, "And the rest of this damn planet? As much I hate Earth at the moment…not EVERYONE deserves to die; there are innocent people on this crap planet and they deserve to live."

He knew that; part of him yelled at him to let everything end, a damn KID had just been killed, HIS own kid was dead. Willow had come back five years ago and had recovered and was now faced with yet another death of a loved one on her mind.

CHILDREN were fighting wars that no one else knew about…wars that adults were supposed to be fighting. There was too much shit going wrong with everything.

He looked at Sam and his team, the thing was he knew that a lot of people didn't deserve to be killed…he knew that Willow didn't deserve to have her last moments on earth destroying the planet that she'd fought so hard to protect. It was sick, everyone here had given up so much and now the one person that had lost the most, had given up the most for this world, was going to be the one who ended it.

The world was sick place to be in.

But, then there were the good parts to this planet; they deserved to survive no matter how bad everything else was.

"We have to stop her," declared Jack stubbornly.

A few moments later, they all reluctantly agreed. As they walked in the direction they knew Willow had gone in Dawn spoke up.

"After we save Willow, then can we kill this Kinsey guy?"

They remained silent for a while, then Buffy said, "Yes, but first we save Will."

They all inwardly agreed.

* * *

Willow turned away from the soldier that she was magically holding in the air, this man was going to be her third kill, but it was going to have to wait.

She listened intently to the thoughts of her friends and a grim smile came over her features, "'Kinsey' huh…time to pay 'Kinsey' a little visit. Make nice."

She dropped the her would-be killer to the floor and ignored his yelp of surprise before he hit the ground; she walked and started collecting up magic into herself to teleport when she realized that some of her magic was dissipating a little.

"Mm, guess it's time for a pick-me-up," she muttered. It would have to wait until after she'd dealt with Kinsey; this couldn't wait.

* * *

Location: The military ambulance

Janet gaped in amazement, "Oh my god." That was remarkable, in all her years as a doctor at the SGC she'd seen some of the strangest things…this was right up there with all that.

Christopher Rosenberg coughed a little as she stared at him; he still had his eyes shut but he was breathing and his wound…

She looked at his bare chest, which she had been about to be clean, and looked at the smooth, pale…completely unblemished skin and slowly shook her head.

Amazing.

* * *

Chris POV

The blanket of familiar darkness that he'd wrapped around himself suddenly tightened around him and sunk into his body; he could feel the energy, the magic flowing through him. Dark magic, that was coming from his mommy, it made him feel powerful and…

Alive.

* * *

Location: Military Ambulance

Janet gasped, freaked, as the cute little boy opened his eyes…his big, black eyes. A scary grin was already forming across his face; she jumped away as his hair bled black.

Chris sat up, iris and pupils now pulsing with red energy and still smirking, he jumped off the stretcher and walked up to Grey.

What was he going to do? Hurt Grey? Did he think that he was one who'd tried to kill him? "Don't!" she yelled, her protective instincts towards any and all of her patients, already in overdrive.

Chris's head snapped to side to look at her, "Don't move," he commanded and he stuck out his right hand.

Don't move? She didn't think so.

Janet tried to move to Grey; nothing happened. What the hell? Oh right…magic. She looked to her other nurses. They weren't moving either.

She watched, warily, as Chris looked at the man; he stuck his hand out. She struggled against the magical restrain and felt sure that the boy was going to kill her patient. She had to stop him!

The painful, potentially-fatal wound on Grey's stomach slowly disappeared and revealed the lightly-tanned, unmarked skin beneath.

What in the world?

As Grey sat up in wonderment and felt his stomach for any pain; then he looked up and saw the boy he'd tried to protect, he gaped and stared with a strange mixture of relief and horror.

Chris, still smirking, backed away slowly almost mockingly and then, with a final wave, disappeared. But not before saying, "My mommy needs help with somethin'."


	21. Chapter 21

Sudden Changes 21

Chris materialized in amidst dark clouds and lightning, the energy disappeared behind him as he started walking; he looked around the hall that he was in. It was familiar to him, he knew that he'd been there before.

His gaze fell on the blood staining the floor and the walls and memories flitted through his mind; the man had hurt him, Dr. Meanie, he'd hurt his mommy, too and his friend…he needed to be punished. He was very bad man, Chris was going to find him and then he was going to punish him.

He turned his attention to the puddle of blood on the floor, "Tell me where Dr. Meanie is," he commanded flatly. He watched and frowned when the blood did nothing, he waited for a few more seconds before growling. "Where is he!?"

Nothing.

His now-dark brown eyes disappeared under the flare of red that started pulsating again, "Why isn't it working?" Why?!

Anger filled him, he gritted his baby teeth together and stamped his bare foot angrily on the blood-covered floor splattering the red liquid up his pajama-covered leg, "Tell me!?" he yelled.

The scenery around him shifted and changed into something different; it was still in the same place but there were other people there.

Chris looked around, there was his mommy; she was leaning over a person…him. He looked away and saw Grey holding his stomach, Dr. Meanie had hurt him too. His gaze shifted to the man that he was trying to find.

He watched the scene unfold in front of him, his mommy looked up; she looked at the man strangely as her eyes glowed red like his own. The man tried to grab the gun but she knocked him down; he then tried to run with his tail between his legs; his mommy got up and everything went bright.

When the light went away Chris saw that the man that had hurt him and his mom was now crumbling to the floor into a pile of dust; the redhead blinked and suddenly the scene disappeared and recreated itself back to what it was before.

Chris looked down, he was already gone. What was he supposed to do now? He closed his eyes and focused, "Mommy?"

* * *

**The Military ambulance**

Grey jumped out of the ambulance as soon as it had slowed to a stop, he made a beeline for the door that they'd used to get in before. He heard the nurses following him.

He didn't know if Chris was going to do something stupid, he didn't think so...screw it, he didn't know WHAT the kid was capable of! Judging by how he'd healed his wound and disappeared he'd guess that the kid was right up there with his mom on terms of power.

He could tell that this was going to end badly; he just knew it.

* * *

**NID Base**

**The hall outside Kinsey's temporary office**

Willow could feel him, she could feel worthless little worm that was responsible for her son and her being brought to his place; if it wasn't for him they wouldn't have been there and Chris would still be alive.

But he wasn't. And people were going to start dying, soon.

"Stop there!"

The redhead came to a standstill and blinked at the two soldiers pointing guns at her, she studied them intently and smirked, "You soldiers! All so willing to be ordered to die, like you don't have mind of your own. And for Kinsey too, you don't even like him- yet you seem to be willing to die for him." She snorted inwardly; she wasn't that narrow-minded though, she knew which soldiers had more of chance of being worth something.

These two had a duty, they didn't particularly feel like doing what they were ordered to but it was their job; she shook her head slightly. She could tell, glancing at their minds, that they despised the man they were currently protecting.

"We're willing to stop you killing people," retorted the man coolly. "THAT'S our job, you're a danger to everyone. It's our duty to eliminate that danger."

The woman beside him nodded silently as she trained her gun on Willow carefully as the redhead smirked.

"You don't know who you're dealing with, do you?" Willow said quietly, yet loudly enough for them to hear her. She stared at the guns thoughtfully.

The two soldiers had almost identical expressions of amazement on their faces as their weapons disintegrated as they held them. They looked away from their dust-covered hands and at her.

Suddenly, Willow shot two ropes of green energy at the pair; the ropes bound them and rendered them completely harmless and defenseless, "You're not eliminating THIS danger," she said mockingly.

She walked over to them lazily, "You're helping a very bad man; he orders the capture of an innocent child, the torture of one…now that child's dead. My child, and you protect him?"

"We have our orders!" snapped the man gruffly. "Stand down, you'll only make things worse for yourself if you don't."

Willow shook her head wryly, "Whatever you say, pops." She walked over to them.

/Now, you two are coming with me/ she communicated to them. She saw their eyes widen in astonishment and snickered.

/Is she going to kill us?/ thought the man anxiously. /Knew I shoulda high-tailed it when I had the chance. I'm never gonna see my kids again./

/What's gonna happen now?/ the woman queried uncomfortably.

Willow blinked as the thoughts of the two soldiers filled her mind, she cringed slightly as visions assaulted her mind. They were running through the playground, two young children, laughing and screaming, stamping in puddles of water.

Jason and Lisa Franks, nine and five years old.

She shook the visions away roughly.

The green ropes fell away before the two soldiers followed her command, unintentionally of course- telepathic mind-control was a bitch, for them anyway- now it was time to give out some much-needed pain.

* * *

Daniel and the others sprinted around the corner, not for the first time they wondered where the actual office was; so far the base had been pretty one-way and easy to navigate through.

The archaeologist knew that sooner or later they'd come to the 'fork-in-the-road' deal and would have to choose which way to turn; which of course could be wrong and judging by their luck- or lack of thereof –they'd have to make several U-Turns before they actually made it there. In which case they'd probably be too late.

As a shout reached his ears he skidded to a halt and span around, then he gaped confusion as he saw Grey- up and running, literally- with Janet and the medical team bringing up the rear. Last time he saw the man he was shot; what was going on?

"Hey, wasn't that guy dying a minute ago?" asked Jack bluntly. He stared as Grey and the med team caught up to them. "Surprise, surprise."

No kidding, Daniel raised his eyebrows at the unlikely group but remained silent; he couldn't bring himself to say anything- especially as it wasn't needed.

"We didn't heal Grey that much, right?" asked Dawn quietly.

Giles glanced at her, "No-

"So, how-

"I haven't the slightest idea," muttered the librarian shaking his head.

"How is it you are well again, Agent Grey?" inquired Teal'c.

Grey looked at Teal'c and then his gaze traveled to Daniel, he paused before he said, "Chris."

A stab of sickening pain streaked through Daniel as he heard the name, "What? What're you talking about?"

The urge to hit the man filled him as he waited for the guy to elaborate; it was Janet who answered the question for him.

"He's alive."

Once he heard those two words he froze, numb, as the breath was knocked out of his lungs; he stared at the doctor speechlessly. For once, his thoughts seemed to freeze up on him.

Thankfully, Jack asked the question, "W….What!?" Isn't that the question they'd all LOVE to know the answer to?

Daniel blinked silently, still speechless as he waited for the answer.

Janet slowly shook her head in pure amazement, "I don't…don't ask me how it happened but I think, well, I don't know what I saw. Chris was HEALING Grey and then he just…"

Just?

"…disappeared," she finished as they all looked at her.

"What?!" growled Jack in frustration. "You're telling us that he's not…that he just…got up and disappeared?"

Numbly, Daniel smirked; Jack hated it when he didn't understand something he wanted to understand- this what one of those times.

"My god," muttered Giles dazedly.

Dawn's eyes were wide, "What happened? Is he okay? Where'd he go?"

"Chris was dead a minute ago," stated Anya confused. "Little boys can't die and then start walking around…unless he's a vampire, he's not a vampire, right?" They looked at her blankly; she shrugged. "Well, he could have been."

Vampire? Chris?

"Chris just walked over to me, made my wound…vanish and then took off," explained Grey, thinking over Dawn's questions. "He looked…"

Looked?

Buffy stepped up closer to him, "'He looked'? What? He LOOKED what?" Anger and frustration radiated from the small blonde.

"He looked like Willow," he said finally. "His..his eyes, they were pitch black."

What? No this wasn't right, finally Daniel said, "No, no, the tablet I translated said-

"Sometimes prophecies don't always come to pass as they say they do," said Giles knowingly. "Especially if whatever, or whoever, made them overlooked something significant; something that might change the outcome."

Nothing's ever set in stone.

"We have to find Willow now," said Janet suddenly. "Chris said, before he left, he needed to help her with something."

No. No! He wouldn't, he couldn't; he's just a little kid…little kids don't think like that…not like he did, not like Willow did. He couldn't kill.

Could he?

"No," Buffy shook her head. "I'm not buying, you guys, Chris isn't capable of killing. He's just a child."

Giles nodded, "Chris doesn't have the power to teleport yet, he's far too young, at the moment, to have that sort of power."

Daniel glared, "Obviously he does, Janet did just say that he 'vanished'.

Janet nodded, "His eyes were black, his hair was black and I've never seen that look on a child's face before."

"What look?" Asked Xander, the others stared worriedly.

"Complete and total evil," muttered a dark-haired nurse behind Janet. "God, that smirk…"

Chris? They were talking about Chris? His son wasn't evil, he was just a kid.

The photos to Chris flashed through his mind; he was just…

Jack shook his head, "Look, kids, time's a wasting; let's get a move on."

The rest of the group followed him without a word, the others that were not quite as familiar with Jack's authority were too anxious for their two friends to question the guy. All they knew was that he was leading them closer to where they needed to be.

That was enough for them.

Still, Buffy muttered, "Not the boss of me…" but she followed anyway, not really caring enough to comment on it aloud.

* * *

**Kinsey's temp. office**

Captain Lionel and Colonel Franks looked up at the ceiling in a daze; they couldn't have done anything really, not with the great black puddle above. And especially not with those spiky-grey tentacles that hugged Kinsey in a crushing grip; thin rivulets of blood trickled down from the tiny wounds the spikes inflicted.

The colonel then looked at the young woman not six feet away from him, she was smirking as she watched the man squirming against the lethal restraints; he shuddered inwardly as she spoke.

"I think Squidward here wants to play," she said conversationally as if the situation they were in was a normal every-day experience for her.

He found his voice finally, "Let him go, a lot of powerful people will be after you if you do this."

She scoffed, "If they know what's good for them they'll stay out of my way; no one can stop me…especially a couple of powerless politicians like Kinsey."

Okay, the kid had a point there; politicians were powerful but not the type of 'powerful' that this girl obviously was. Politically-powerful wasn't the same as this.

Whatever 'power' that was.

He could tell that Kinsey could sense his reluctance to help him, well really, what did he expect? He was responsible for the murder of a child, he had to have known that that would have come back to take a chunk right out of his ass. If not, he was a fool.

Even though his instincts were screaming for him to take the wack-job out at that moment he knew he couldn't- yeah, okay, he could but he wouldn't want to. Her kid was dead, what would he do if it were Jason or Lisa dead on the floor, shot by a crazy asshole?

He'd go nuclear, heck he got worried when his kids scraped their knees or got sick; if they were shot-

Franks blinked up at Kinsey and glanced at Lionel who he was holding back; her hazel eyes were wide with shock as she stared at the black puddle on the ceiling, the tentacles and Kinsey.

Shocked, huh? He understood perfectly.

His gaze snapped back to Kinsey as a scream of horror and pain erupted from the man's blood-filled mouth; for a moment it wasn't clear to Franks what had happened, then he and Lionel watched in stunned horror as a translucent, thin sheet of skin uncurled from Kinsey's right wrist and peeled backwards. Slowly.

It looked liked he was wearing an insanely-thin cuff around his wrist as the skin rolled up into itself and moved up the arm as more skin was unraveled. Blood dotted the layer of skin underneath as it was left in other layer's wake.

Willow clenched the fingers of her right hand into claws, jabbed her hand forwards then to the side and watched as four deep, bloody lacerations streaked through his shirt and into his skin.

With a wave of her hand the red-stained shirt ripped and fell to the ground under him; the tentacles were still wrapped around his upper-chest, under his arms and around his legs holding him in midair.

Franks sensed, more than heard, that the creature outside and inside the dark vortex was hungry; holding its food but not being allowed to consume it was pissing the thing off. Still, the woman seemed to be able to handle anything that was thrown at her for the moment.

His thoughts were interrupted as a wave of shadows, dark fog and lightening erupted out of nowhere; he and his colleague watched, transfixed, as the energy partially dissolved and changed into a young child.

The child's black hair blew back slightly from his face by an unnatural wind that was suddenly blowing through the room, he paused for several moments and then looked right up at the vortex and the creature; then he looked at Willow, "Kill him!"

Franks and his colleague watched, unable to move, as Willow's head snapped to the side to look at the boy and at that moment he realized what he was seeing.

Christopher Rosenberg, very pissed off and very much alive.

* * *

Rupert Giles followed Agent Grey through the halls; his mind was in turmoil and had been since Grey and the medical team had revealed the revelation of Chris's return to life- how the child was alive was a mystery to him.

Maybe Willow brought him back, no, that wasn't it; if she had she would know that Chris was alive in the first place. She would never have gone over the edge.

No, whatever happened to Chris happened to him without Willow knowing about it; but what was it?

The PTB maybe?

"Right over there," Grey pointed at the door to their right before stopping in front of the door.

They were stopping! Why on earth-

"Have to check out the situation first," explained Grey as if he could read minds. "We do have to know what we're walking into, ya know."

Jack sighed, "The situation, agent, is that the mother of Danny's previously-dead son is in there and about to make a big mistake; that's the situation."

Mistake?

Jack must have read the look on his face, he said, "A couple of years ago the NID, at least I think it was them, killed a reporter before he could make a secret program public knowledge- what do you think they'd do if they found out that Willow killed the damn US Senator, hmm?"

Giles scoffed, "Willow's one of the most powerful people walking the planet, maybe THE most, I think that if anyone tried to aggravate her they'd find themselves in a rather difficult situation- as will be obvious when you see beyond the sodding door."

Which STILL wasn't open!

The colonel nodded, "Okay, good point. But Chris DIED back there; I don't know how he's back or the reasons for it- but I'll bet my entire 'Simpsons' DVD collection that the next time they go after Chris the kid won't be coming back. And neither will Willow."

If she even comes back THIS time.

They got Chris once, they'll get him again. But- "If Senator Kinsey is saved what's to stop him coming after them anyway…or any of US for that matter?"

Jack smirked slyly, "Well, after what Willow is obviously putting him through at this moment I don't think he'll go after them again in a hurry."

Not if he had an ounce of self-preservation, no, he won't.

Xander made an impatient noise, "Hey, are we gonna stand out here all DAY? Willow needs us in there and sticking our thumbs up our asses."

Daniel, who was equally impatient, gestured to the younger man in agreement.

Sticking their thumbs up…good lord. The boy did have a point though, however crudely that point was made.

"Okay, then," said Jack under his breath. "Let's go."

Jack lifted his right leg up and brought it crashing down into the door; the doorframe splintered and the door whipped open and impacted the wall loudly.

"Hold it!" Jack snapped, then his eyes widened. "Holy cheese, what's with the fish in the ceiling?"

* * *

Daniel heart almost stopped as he realized what, or rather WHO, he was seeing; not breathing, he stared at the little boy in the center of the room. He was seeing his son for the first time and-

-he wished he wasn't.

Daniel heart broke as he stared into his son's evil, black eyes; his son's blood-soaked and half-naked body- the blood splattered up his 'Snoopy' pajamas bottoms, smears of it across his chest and face.

How could he have let this happen?


	22. Chapter 22

**Sudden Changes chapter 22**

Willow blinked at the boy beside her, she couldn't seem to stop looking at him. He was familiar, yet unfamiliar at the same time. He was small, skinny; she recognized that; what she didn't identify with him was the black hair, the eyes, the blood.

What was going on?

"Kill him, mommy!" he yelled angrily. His black eyes erupted into flame; a familiar darkness radiated from him…the voice was familiar, but the tone…no, that wasn't…

…mommy?...

A million thoughts raced through her mind at that moment, she didn't understand. This was important…but all her thoughts kept going back to the rage, the grief…no, no, she couldn't go there. Not again.

There was only the anger, that was good…it was better than grief, the rage was numb and messed up…the grief was too hard…too cold. It never ended, she couldn't face it…she couldn't face anything outside the fog of rage and the desperate need for retribution.

A cry of pain wrenched her attention away from the boy who remained unknown to her grief/rage-fogged mind; all she wanted was vengeance; for everything to stop and be right.

She looked at Kinsey, he was covered in red and great, long sheets of skin hung from him like clean bed sheets draped over a cleaner's arm; she snickered in amusement as she stared at him through her too-shiny eyes.

She was playing with him, he was fun to play with. He screamed all the time, that was always fun. There was no fun without any screaming.

"Don't do it," warned Kinsey, blood trickled from his mouth. "If you do this you'll never be free…neither of you will!"

Willow smirked, she didn't care about that. Everything was gone now, she no reason to want to be free, nothing mattered anymore.

Then the door crashed open and a dozen or so people stepped into the room, they looked around the room first.

The grey-haired man, not yet seeing the monster shouted, "Hold it!" then his eyes widened as he caught sight of it. "Holy cheese, what's with the fish in the ceiling?"

Fish?

Then he looked at Kinsey, he seemed speechless at first and then sighed, "Oh, Kinsey," with a look of false regret on his face. The smug look in his eyes, however, showed her how much he didn't like this man. "Karma really has taken a chunk right outta your ass."

He smirked, looking oddly similar to hers, "Now, tell us, how does that feel?"

"Colonel," warned a woman that had short blonde hair.

The colonel sighed in annoyance, "Okay."

"Colonel O'Neill! You get me out of here, NOW!" shouted Kinsey, he sounded like he was going to continue talking but was cut off when he started coughing violently.

Colonel O'Neill didn't bother hiding a small grin; then he looked serious and slightly disappointed, "As much as I'd LOVE to see where this is going…"

"Chris?"

Willow reeled back as the name hit her ears; she looked to see who had spoken and saw a strangely familiar man walking closer to her and-

She looked at the small child blankly, she knew that she should know him, it was tugging at her frayed sanity. It wanted her to know.

To know what?

Kinsey suddenly shouted, "What're you FOOLS waiting for?!"

Chris bared his teeth, the front two were missing, and glared at the man with an expression of the utmost loathing, "Be QUIET!" he clapped his hands to his mouth after he said this.

It wasn't until they looked at Kinsey that they found that the old man's face was missing a rather vital part; his mouth. The skin below his nose was stretched tightly over his jaws, the fact that he was trying to talk was made apparent as the thick layer of extra skin stretched and then relaxed, before stretching again.

"Holy Hannah," muttered the blonde, wide eyed.

"Oh my god," said one of the nurses. "Look at- is that his SKIN?"

Xander moaned, "Oh, man. What is it with boys and their mommas?"

Willow looked at the boy and then at Kinsey, then to the group that had come crashing through the door. Something at the back of her mind was telling her something, she ignored it.

But what she couldn't ignore was her magic depleting a little, just like it had before; she growled and turned to the group, "What're you doing?!"

Couldn't they see this man needed to die? He was evil! A child-killer! Why were they trying to stop her?

Why wouldn't they stop her? They'd tried to when Tara had died, when she'd been shot by Warren.

Willow blinked, they tried to stop her from killing Warren and they failed; she'd been too quick for them. They'd seen her kill that murdering bastard, and they seen that she had felt absolutely…

…empty…

"What?" asked Xander, confused. "What do you think we're doing? We're trying to stop you making the biggest mistake of your life!"

Willow shook her head, she wasn't making a mistake! This was right, didn't he see that? "Stupid." She waved a hand.

Hit by an invisible force, they flew backwards out of the room; the door was slammed shut after them.

Or it would've done but the frame had been too damaged.

/Mommy!? You're taking too long, I'm doing it now!/ a familiar voice shouted in her mind.

The witch froze, it her fuzzed mind she could barely recognize his voice; didn't recognize him by look at all. But when his voice and mind touched hers she knew…

Buffy ran into the room, "Will, don't-

"Willow! Don't do this!"

Warily and very suspicious, she turned to him, "Who the hell are you!?" Was he there to stop her too? What right did he have to try to stop her? HE didn't lose a child, he didn't know anything! None of them knew ANYTHING!

"Daniel!" The colonel ran to the man's side. "Don't do anything stupid."

What was HE going to do?

The younger man, with the glasses, stared at her, "Not going to, Jack." He looked at 'Squidward' in the ceiling and grimaced slightly. "Nice pet."

She blinked, not smiling.

"Daniel," warned the blonde. "Careful."

What did he want?

"GO AWAY!"

Willow spun around and saw that the kid that had came teleporting in was now very angry; she frowned as energy crackled around him. He seemed so familiar.

/Why won't you kill him! He killed me!/ he screamed in her head.

Willow cringed slightly, killed him?

She could barely concentrate, all she wanted to do was to kill the son of a bitch that was tied to the ceiling; but something in her wanted to understand what was going on around her.

She didn't understand.

Kinsey screamed something, the skin around his mouth made the words come out muffled and unintelligible.

Chris glared at him, "You're a bad man! You killed them!" dark purple lightning crackled around him.

As the energy sizzled around him, stronger now, she noticed that it wasn't her friends that were sapping her power. It was…him.

Why? Her mind screamed for retribution, drowning out most of what she was trying to make sense of.

Willow stared into the boy's black eyes, stared and stared and-

Chris?

An illusion, it had to be; they were trying to stop her again! She wanted revenge and THEY were helping that bastard, no one stood in her way!

Even so, she couldn't take her eyes off him; he had to be fake…had to be. But then how could he drain her magic so much?

One part of her was screaming at her to deliver the punishment whilst the other part wanted to see into the child; the two sides snapped at one another as she turned to Kinsey.

She drew up her magic to deliver the final blast while she still felt the boy dragging some of her magic away from her and into himself.

"Willow!"

Just then, the bespectacled man ran up to her, "You have to stop this."

She cocked her head to the side, "Really."

He looked angry, and then jabbed at finger at the boy, "HE'S your damn son, Willow! You have to stop this NOW; I won't let you do this in front of him!"

Willow glared, "You're an idiot if you think that's gonna fool me." She looked at him….and blinked, his eyes looked just like…

"Fool you? No, this isn't like that!" he pleaded. "This isn't right; you're about to kill someone in front of our four-year-old son and I won't let you do that."

Son? Our?

She felt more of her magic drain away, she furiously went to take it back…

Then, she couldn't breathe, she just stared at the boy. She could feel the link between her and her son, it was stronger but…

It was tainted, dark magic streamed along the link that bound them together; the link that she'd created when she'd opened the telepathic connection between them as Chris had died.

He'd been dying as the link was established and when he'd slipped away from her he had grasped onto the connection cementing it temporarily between them; as he was in limbo, held there by the magic, the magic she was using had started healing him and, at the same time, had started corrupting him.

Filling him with her darkness.

The information buzzed through Willow's mind, the connection saying that he was alive suddenly started grounding her.

He was alive.

And she was killing him inside.

The man in front of her grasped her shoulders, shaking her slightly, "Don't let him do this!" he turned away from her and looked at Chris.

Huh? Him?

Willow looked at the man, 'Daniel' as Jack had called him, and she saw the connection. Not the magical connection…another sort of link between Daniel and her…

She blinked…her son…

"Chris?" she said staring at him.

The link, that looked like a long piece of silver string, was a three-way deal; one ran from her to Chris and then from Daniel to Chris. The link would run to her son because…well, because Chris was her son. He was a part of her.

So, then why would Daniel-

The realization hit her full force, she stared at him; her mind flashed back to the night she'd spent in San Diego, the night she'd spent getting completely plastered and the night she'd met HIM.

As Willow struggled to get to grips with all this information the link again flared and she once again felt her magic draining. Her head snapped to Chris.

"Bored now," the little boy said sounding nonchalant.

The meaning of those two words, the memories that went along with them, grounded her mind completely.

Guilt, self-loathing and fear almost suffocated her; as she struggled with them, as well as the events and revelations, she saw one of the most hauntingly-familiar things.

She saw her son raise his hand, saw him focus the magic on Kinsey. And for a moment she almost allowed it, Kinsey deserved to die for what he did; deserved to be flayed alive like Warren.

But she wanted Chris to come down; she wanted him the way he was before and she knew that that wasn't going to happen if she let him do this. She couldn't let him do this, it would kill him.

"Chris!" Willow shot an invisible, magical hand out at the energy that her son had released; she couldn't see it but she could feel it. She held onto it tightly and then concentrated on the link and her son; she dragged the magic from him and back into herself.

She couldn't let the dark magic control her son, she didn't want him to be like her. She was tainted by every dreadful decision she'd ever made; she'd brought all that on herself.

Was she going to let Chris suffer for what SHE had done?

No.

Willow froze, staring at him, and realized what she needed to do; a mix of horror and revulsion warred within her as she tried to find a way out of that.

"Willow!" yelled Buffy in sudden panic.

The yell barely registered before the magic she'd managed to absorb from Chris was yanked away from her sending waves of pain through her mind, she looked at her son and saw that he was sticking his arms out towards Kinsey.

No! Willow launched herself at Chris quickly and knocked him over, she made sure that she didn't land on him. He struggled fiercely in her strong grip as he landed on her, she landed on her back; then he opened his mouth and let rip with a scream that was akin to the sound of a hundred screeching banshees.

She cringed, gritting her teeth, as the noise assaulting her ears with a new intensity; she felt him struggle within her grasp again and then she felt, rather than saw, him magically expel several people from the room again.

Chris screamed again and waves of pain shot down her body, she knew that he was attacking her to get to Kinsey the way she had attacked Buffy and her friends trying to get to the Trio; she was losing him.

As much as she hated to it, loathed the very THOUGHT of hurting him, she pressed her hand to his tiny, bare chest and did what she had sworn she'd never to do another person again.

A golden glow wrapped around her hand illuminated Chris, the horrible expression of agony on his lightly-freckled face as she absorbed the magic he'd gotten from her.

Her heart shattered as his screams tore through her.

/I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry-/ and the screams of remorse and horror flooded into Chris's mind as the magical connection created when he'd died closed for good.

She clung to his rigid body as the dark magic flooded into hers, again tainting her mind, her soul as it, for the third time, pushed her over the edge and into the dark embrace of her very own evil.

And this time she wasn't coming back.

* * *

Daniel cheered inside as Willow seemed to brake out of her psychosis; she was finally coming to her senses. He wasn't stupid, he knew that the prophecy that he'd translated was wrong, HE hadn't brought her down from her magic. Just the fact that Chris wasn't dead had done the trick.

But they still had to save Chris.

Daniel moved forwards quickly as Willow dived at their son; but before he made it to them Chris opened his mouth and his unearthly screams crashed through his eardrums; he skidded to a stop and clamped his hand over his ears.

"Whoa, that kid has a pair of lungs on him!" exclaimed Jack behind him.

Daniel stared into Chris's enraged black eyes, he tried to stay calm even as felt the need to just take a dive at those two and hope for the best; he knew he couldn't do that. He noticed at the corner of his eye that agent Grey was helping Colonel Franks and Captain Lionel out of the room.

Agent Grey, Lionel, Franks, the nurses and Teal'c were thrown from the room forcefully before the door slammed shut so hard that it had jammed into the broken frame; that door was going to be a bitch to open up again.

He looked back to Chris and Willow and knew he had to at least try to drag them both apart, a fork of purple lightning erupted from the two of them and struck the ground right next to him.

Another bolt would have struck him but Jack yanked him out of the way, the colonel was about to yell something when a wave of energy picked them up off the floor and threw them backwards.

He, Jack and everyone else who was still in the room- minus Kinsey- landed in an undignified heap on the ground, he rolled off Jack as he heard his friend say, "This is turning out to be the crappiest day!"

As Teal'c would say, He concurred.

"Willow!"

Daniel saw Buffy restraining Giles as he tried to run to the pair; he looked at the pair in question and he felt his face contort into the same horror that he felt tearing through him.

A glow emanated from Willow's hand which was planted firmly on their son's chest; he ran forwards as the boy's tortured screams were ripped from his throat.

Jack caught his arm and held him back as Daniel looked at Chris wide, unseeing eyes; he struggled to break free of his best friend's grip. Just as he was about to Sam grabbed his other arm, anger boiled inside him at, what he considered to be, his friends' betrayal.

"Daniel, stop struggling…just look!" yelled Sam into his ear.

He glared behind him, "Look at what?! My son being tortured!?" What the hell were they doing?

"My god," he heard Giles say as the room filled with silence.

He lessened his struggles as confusion caused him to stop and look at his surroundings, specifically at Chris.

"What happened?" asked Dawn shakily.

Daniel just stared at them both in bewilderment.

"She just absorbed the dark magic…" Giles continued to give out a vague explanation while Daniel just started walking towards Willow and Chris.

Jack and Sam had released him from their grips and were now following him; Daniel blinked and shook his head, "What did she do?"

Chris's face relaxed slightly before he sobbed once, then again. Tears streamed down the boy's face from his now-blue eyes, "Mommy….'m….hurts…."

Willow's arms were draped around Chris's chest loosely, her eyes were closed…

Daniel looked at the both of them, his son's now-red hair flopped away from his face, now devoid of the evil it had been full of not five minutes ago; grief welled up inside him as he knelt down beside them.

"God…" he struggled to hold back tears as he wrapped his hand around Chris's much smaller one; it was light, soft and…fragile. A deep contrast from the picture the little boy made; covered in congealed blood.

He flinched slightly as the previously-stuck door was ripped off its hinges, Teal'c emerged from the doorway looking ready to fight. Grey and the others followed him in, curiously they looking around the much-quieter room.

Daniel ignored them as the four year old looked at him; he just stared back at the kid and into the blue eyes that looked so much like his own, "Chris?"

"Willow!?" Xander suddenly appeared beside him, the younger man looked at the Willow and Chris. Then he turned to Daniel, "They both need help, now, c'mon."

Daniel turned back, "Janet!"

Just as Janet and her nurses ran up to them an exclamation from Chris quickly caught his attention, "Mommy!?"

Chris gripped Willow's shirt and pulled, "Mommy?" he pulled harder and then stopped, just looking at her, hands still clinging to the shirt.

Xander put two fingers to Willow's throat, just over her pulse, and concentrated.

Daniel pulled at the child gently and then said, "Chris, your mom needs help, okay. Now, you need to come outta the way so they can help her."

Suddenly, Chris let go and curled into a ball; Daniel scooped him up with difficulty because of the position the kid was in. Chris moaned in despair, uncurled himself and clung to Daniel, his moan turned into a wail.

"I…I…hurt mommy," wailed Chris, almost unintelligibly due to the crying. "I didn't m-mean to…"

Daniel hugged the boy as the arms wrapped around his neck tighter; he hated to see and hear Chris crying, it made him want to do something, anything, to make him feel better and be happy.

He barely noticed Buffy standing next to him, stroking Chris red hair back from his small tear-streaked face or her words of comfort. He was stuck, drowning, in his own thoughts.

Daniel had no way of making Chris feel better. It would be a useless attempt; just like everything else had been, he hadn't helped at all- in fact, he'd probably just made things worse- god! He was so useless!

Thoughts of his self-recrimination were brought to a halt as shouts of fear and warning erupted from the small crowd around Willow; he looked back in time to see everyone around her drop to the ground like puppets that had just had their strings cut.

Chris disentangled himself from Daniel and looked around, his eyes widened, "Mommy?!" the child struggled to get out of his arms.

A second later a torrent of dark energy flew from Willow's hands, past Daniel and Chris, and hit the ceiling next to where the monster was holding Kinsey.

Both he and Chris looked at Willow as she said, "Dinnertime."

In Daniel peripheral vision he saw his son's mouth drop open in horror as the monster dragged the struggling Kinsey up into the ceiling and out of their sight; his muffled screams echoed through his mind.

He felt Chris moved around, presumably to look at Willow, and a second later he screamed, "Mommy!? Nooo!"

Daniel whipped around in time to see Willow disappear in a cloud of shadows, he stood there frozen in shock, Chris's hysterical screaming echoing in his ears, surrounded by his motionless friends and colleagues lying strewn about the room like so many children's toys.

He felt the horror, hopelessness and grief of the last few days slam into him as he stared around at the carnage through water-clogged eyes; he blinked furiously to clear his vision and took no notice of the tears now rolling down his cheeks.

Daniel clung tightly to his son, the one success in the mess that he felt he'd made. He had, after all, been given the responsibility of saving his new-found family and look how that had turned out.

He had completely messed it up.


	23. Chapter 23

**Chapter 23**

Jack growled, why couldn't they just let them deal with it? This was the last time he was working with civvies! Well, except Daniel; but at least he listened to him.

Most of the time anyway.

"Look, I realize that you're all a little wary about dealing with the military," started Jack, he sighed inwardly. Just channel your inner Daniel, Jack. "But you should know by now that we aren't like the 'Initiative'-

Buffy scoffed, "How do we know that? You just think that the fact that you fight aliens would immediately have us all buddy-ing up with you people?"

Well, kinda-

"Don't think so, Skippy," finished the blonde contemptuously.

Skippy?!

Jack scowled, inner-Daniel fading out, "Oh for crying out loud! We're already up shit's creek here; Willow's off somewhere doing who-knows-what and we can't do anything about it. If you'd just let me contact General Hammond I could get a few SG teams to help out-

"And what will they bring?" interrupted Giles. "Guns perhaps? Aside from the fact that guns would do no good, the very sight of one would only serve to antagonize Willow further."

Well, guns weren't the only option!

"Fine! We'll bring a boatload of 'Zats' instead," snapped the colonel in frustration. "There's no way in HELL I'm letting my team walk into a dangerous situation with no way in which to defend themselves. That would be plain stupid."

Buffy scowled and that walked up to him until they were nose to…well, nose to chest; she poked his chest with her finger, "Do you really think we want you here? Believe me, we really don't. We can do this without you, so if you can't do this our way-

The blonde pointed to the door, "-there's your way out."

Are you kidding? Were these people TRYING to get themselves killed!? They going up against a teleporting, world-ending witch…who just happened to be their buddy; the kids needed all the help they could get.

"I want them to stay," said Chris pleadingly.

All eyes turned to the boy, who was still clinging to Daniel like a lifeline; it was the first time he'd spoken since he'd stopped screaming; which was about twenty minutes ago.

Daniel hitched the small child up into a more secure position as his son started to slip slightly and said, "I'm staying, Chris is my-

Jack looked at him, you really gonna tell Chris, Danny-boy?

Daniel stopped suddenly before glancing at Chris, who was looking up at him curiously, he cleared his throat, "What I meant to say was, I'm staying and I think that you'll need us; my friends won't leave if I'm here and I won't leave if Chris is here."

Damn right!

Buffy glared at him, she looked as if she was thinking rather hard about something, then she sighed, "Take Chris with you."

WHAT!?

"What?" Xander said in shock. "Buffy-

Buffy shook her head, "No! Chris isn't staying here; it's a damn war-zone, he could get hurt…and-

She looked at Chris sadly, "You've already seen too much for a little kid to handle."

She did have a point…but, wait just a cotton-pickin' minute! "We need Daniel here; ya know, the prophecy…ring any bells with you nice folk?"

Eyes wide, Daniel nodded, "J-Jack's right, I can't go anywhere…I won't."

Right, because of the dream-thing? Ya know, most people dream about work and unpaid bills; but nooo, Daniel has to dream about dead-people. Being normal was kinda over-rated, though.

One of the nurses cleared her throat loudly, "I know I'm kind of interrupting here, but would you mind telling us what the HELL is going on!?"

Another nurse nodded, "Sasha's right, what was that…that thing in the ceiling?"

Jack sighed, "Well, obviously it was a mutant fish." 'cause those were all the rage these days, with all the gadgets and springs…it was a new accessory for witches.

Daniel blinked at him blankly, "A-a mutant FISH!? Jack, that wasn't a-

"It was a hell monster," said Chris quietly. "Came from down there." He pointed a short index at the floor.

Uh, "It came from the floor?"

Chris blinked, "No, it came from hell," the kid glazed at him intently. "Are you Uncle Xander's daddy, you talk like Uncle Xander…kinda."

Jack blinked, speechlessly, "Uh, no…" he was sure Xander had a very nice 'daddy' but it definitely wasn't HIM.

"Of course he's my dad, the situation just wouldn't seem right without THAT problem being added to the list of very shocking revelations that seem to be bestowed upon us," Xander blathered.

"So, that was a demon?" asked Sasha nervously. "Great, aliens and now demons; anything else we need to know?"

Jack rumpled his hair warily, "Other than the fact that I'm missing the 'Simpsons', not really."

Daniel looked to the heavens as if to ask for strength, "You have the whole series on video, Jack. Can we PLEASE get back to what's important?"

Well, when he put it like that…

"Right, the joys of fightin' monsters," said Jack, his hand clench around his P90. "If I can bring in some teams-

"No! Look," snapped Buffy impatiently, she had dark circles under her eyes and looked pretty wiped out; which was an improvement next to the others. "We're not bringing in anymore teams, we can't risk anyone trying to take over what we're trying to do here. Either you stay, just you people, or you leave and don't bother us again."

Jack bristled inwardly, "'Bother you!?' We're 'bothering' you? Well, sooorry." He turned to his team. "We're leaving, kids."

Fury simmered within him.

"Jack!" exclaimed Daniel.

Sam gave him a stunned look, "Sir, with all due respect-

"Carter! Can it," he snapped. "We're outta here." He wasn't risking his kids' necks if they weren't even needed, or wanted, no way!

"You're leaving?" asked Dawn with faux calm. "Just like that?"

Uh, yeah! Was that not clear? "Why not? Not our problem."

"It'll be EVERYONE'S problem if we don't do this right!" said Xander angrily.

"I guess you're not alike to us as I first thought," said the former Key, tone and eyes cold. "I thought, maybe, you were like us; just, ya know, instead of fighting demons you're fighting aliens."

"Oh for crying out loud," muttered Jack irritably. "We WANT to help! If we didn't we wouldn't BE here!"

"I want them to help us," said Chris impatiently. "We hafta have help."

Giles sighed and took his glasses off his nose, "As Chris said, we do need your assistance. We don't want the military involved in this anymore than it already is; it would be dangerous to us and we simply do not have the time."

Jack sighed, "And what if we can't stop Willow?" If they failed to stop Willow the SGC would have the responsibility of stopping her.

"Angel," stated Buffy.

"Well, that's easy to understand," said Sam sarcastically. "Angels."

Say what? "Angels? Ya know, somehow, I don't think they'd be much help." Was Buffy cracked?

The blonde Slayer sighed in exasperation, "Not 'Angels'! Angel, he's-

Jack raised his eyebrows, "'HE'!?" he looked faintly amused. "He…he's a guy; a guy named 'Angel'?"

Xander nodded, smirking slightly, "Yup, he's sounds MIGHTY girlie, doesn't he?"

Sh'yeah! "Just a bit."

"Guys, focus!" snapped Buffy impatiently. "There's another group, like us, in LA, that also fight demons… if we can't stop Will, it'll be up to them."

"And if THEY can't stop her it'll be up to the SGC," said Jack nodding. "General Hammond already knows all this crazy shit, if we don't get this done right he'll get the other SGC personnel ready."

Buffy sighed, "Maybe that's not so bad, at least they'll be someone trying to bring her down."

They fell silent as they heard Chris talking quietly to Daniel, "….my fault, I was bad…"

Damn

Jack turned away from Chris and Daniel and said, "We shouldn't talk about this in front of the kid; he's already been through a lot."

Buffy nodded, "We're going to get Willow back, but we…" she grimaced in distaste. "We need Daniel; the prophecy might not be completely accurate but Daniel's a key part of it…so he should be here."

"So, you're not leavin'?" asked Chris, hopefully. His tear-soaked face turned away from Daniel and towards Jack.

A pained look crossed Jack's face, "No, we're not leaving. Neither is Daniel."

Chris grinned for the first time in what was probably a long time, "Yay!" he tightened his arms around the archaeologist's neck. "I really want you to stay!"

Daniel looked unbelievably happy at that announcement.

Then he looked around, "Where's Mr. Grey? I want Mr. Grey to stay too!"

Agent Grey smiled, blushing slightly, "'course I'm staying, kid, I'm not leaving 'til I know you and you're mom are okay."

Chris loosened his arms from around Daniel's neck and turned away, now hugging Grey, "That's good."

"Uhhh, people?" called a nurse, she sounded scared. "We have a little problem here."

Ah nuts! Now what?

Jack, and everyone else in the room, moved towards the rather tortured-looking door and looked outside into the halls; the colonel was pointing his gun in front of him cautiously and peered out as well…

"That's not possible," muttered Sam in shock.

"Where'd the rest of the building go?" asked Jack faintly. "And…whoa…"

"It appears that a substantial amount of this complex has disappeared," said Teal'c as he looked around. "I think it would be wise that we exit this building as soon as possible, as it is not safe."

No, really?

"Ya don't say," said Jack sarcastically. He shook his head as he surveyed his surroundings, most of the building at vanished which Jack found rather unnerving; but that wasn't a bad as the fact that the weather had changed….drastically.

"I don't like storms," mumbled Chris into Daniel's neck. "I don't like them at all." Daniel hugged the boy, obviously trying to make him feel as safe as possible.

Storms, huh? The kid wasn't even overstating; torrential rain was now pouring down from the black, cloudy skies. They watched silently as forks of bluish-white lightning slashed its way across the sky and a few seconds later a huge bang and a rumble of thunder washed over them.

"So, this is Willow," asked Jack, he wouldn't be surprised if it was. "Right?"

"Yup," Xander jammed his hands in his pockets, trying to look carefree. "That's Willow; she always has been an overachiever."

The colonel nodded, "Looks that way."

Suddenly a fork of lightning struck a part of the building they were in; the ground shook violently, knocking some people to the floor.

Jack looked around, "Okay, people! We're getting outta this place now!"

The only question was, how?

* * *

Daniel hugged his son tighter and looked down at the ground far beneath them, he looked away quickly; although he had gotten over his fear of heights a little, they still cropped up at certain times.

This would be one of those times.

He looked behind him at Dawn and Giles, the two people were sat on the floor holding hands; they had their eyes closed as they concentrated on finding a safe way of getting them all out.

Whatever they chose he hoped that they were quick; the more time they spent standing around the further away Willow got and he HAD to get to her somehow; he didn't…it wasn't even 'just his job' anymore; if he didn't want to do this he could have walked away.

He wanted to this, he'd already managed to help Chris, although that was actually Willow's doing, not his. She was part of his family now, both she and his son were; whether they knew it or not. And he was going to do everything in his power to help them.

Daniel saw that the faces of Dawn and Giles were contorting with pained-concentration; he looked back outside the room-

And his mouth dropped open.

"Holy Moly," muttered Jack in amazement.

The air outside the room, the building, had hardened and semi-translucent stairs were now running from the doorway all the way down to the ground…

"Sure beats using a rope," Jack quipped smirking slightly.

"Ya know what?" asked one of the nurses nervously. "I can't wait 'til we get back to the SGC, it's so much simpler there."

Daniel snorted, that was something he'd never expected to hear.

"You got that right," agreed Sam, eyes wide as she looked at the stairs.

No doubt she was thinking of how many laws of physics they were defying just by doing all of this.

Giles looked up at them, "Go, this can only last for so long."

Daniel nodded as Chris shifted in her arms, the boy lifted his head up and looked at the stairs, then he looked at him, "You'll carry me down, right?"

"Of course I will," replied Daniel smiling at the child. "It's what I'm here for, kinda." Other than trying to save his new family.

Chris looked at him silently, REALLY looked at him as they followed behind Sam, they walked down the steps in a cautious, but fast, pace, "You're my daddy, aren't you?"

What!?

Daniel almost fell off the steps in shock, he stopped for a second but was nudged forwards by someone behind him, he continued walking and was somewhat stunned, "What…..what makes you say that?"

Chris shook his head, the expression of exasperation on his face was amusing, "You did say that to mommy…when…when I was…w-well, I 'member."

Huh, Daniel had thought that Chris hadn't heard him reprimand Willow for attempting to kill Kinsey in front of their child…obviously he had.

"And, well, you kinda feel like my daddy," continued Chris as they walked down the stairs carefully.

God he HATED walking down these stairs! They were too high and had NO railings, no one had anything to hang onto! "H-how's that?"

Chris paused for a moment, looking at him with those piercing blue eyes- exactly like his own- and said, "Don't know. You'll get mommy back, right?"

Lightening and thunder crashed over their heads, making them wince; Chris clung on to him tighter.

He finally reached the bottom and sighed with relief, "I'll try to."

"So, you'll get her back?" his wide eyes stared into his with complete trust.

Daniel sighed, "I don't know, all I can say is that I'll try."

The torrential rain had soaked their hair to their heads, it was glancing off the lenses of their glasses; they'd never looked so alike. Daniel was relieved that it was raining, the shower was washing away the blood that had covered his son.

Chris looked upset, "You won't promise?"

"I can't," he couldn't make a promise that he might not be able to keep; he just couldn't.

"I want her back."

"So do I."

Daniel set the boy down onto the ground, he took off his coat and wrapped it around his son knowing that Chris had to be freezing and cursing himself for not covering him up before they'd walked out into the downpour.

What if he caught pneumonia!?

Chris smiled at him and snuggled into the coat tightly, "Thank you."

Daniel smiled back, wincing again as a huge crash of thunder almost deafened them, it sounded as though the world was breaking in two; which, he thought, could very well be happened at that moment.

Chris was still scared at the thunder so Daniel scooped the boy up into his arms and hugged him tightly; he felt a hand on his shoulder and turned around to see Jack staring at him.

"Daniel," tension radiated from Jack as he looked at the archaeologist. He had a fleeting thought that they should have radioed into Hammond by now; they were in it deep.

He hoped that the general didn't decide to send out SG teams to go look for them, they'd just end up with more dead people.

Dawn and Giles were jerkily lowered to the ground and then they collapsed from exhaustion of using too much magic; Xander went to help them up but was brushed away, evidently they wanted to rest for a second.

"Dawn said Willow went over in that direction," he continued, pointing north-east of Daniel towards the road, thankfully there were no cars or other vehicles driving along them. It seemed deserted, which was a little disconcerting.

/Resourceful bunch, aren't you?/

Shocked, Daniel almost dropped his son as Willow's voice echoed in his head, the voice was frighteningly clear; he looked around expecting to catch a glimpse of her at least but he didn't. However, he did see that he wasn't the only one who'd heard her in their heads, "Did anybody else just here that?"

"Yeah, I heard it," replied Sam, she looked around and he knew that she was trying to spot Willow as well. "Glad to see I'm not the only one."

"Loud and clear," Jack remarked, angling his P90 in front of him as he checked their surroundings.

/That should make this all the more interesting./

Daniel frowned in confusion, his son turned his head from side to side to try and see if he was missing anything, "Why do I get the feeling we're NOT going to like what she meant?"

"I'm not even going to dignify that with an answer," remarked Xander, he prodded a bleeding cut on his forehead.

"So, this Willow person is telepathic?" asked Sasha looking anxious.

/Ding ding ding, we have a winner!/

The nurse looked around with mounting fear, obviously still expecting the redheaded witch to be in her line of sight.

/Ta ta for now/

Chris smiled at the line, obviously thinking of 'Tigger' and 'Winnie the Pooh'; the others, however, were not so innocent and tensed warily, waiting for an attack.

The ground rocked underneath them so hard that some of them were fighting to keep their balance; Teal'c of course was standing solidly on the ground almost at an ease as everyone else either stumbled or fell down.

"Daniel!?" cried Chris in panic as the ground started swelling with lumps, as this happened the ground around them all looked like it had grown dozens and dozens of little hillocks. Then, a second after they had seemingly stilled the hillocks bulged outwards until they were so big that the earth split and fell away along with the grass.

The grass, earth and dirt fell away to the ground to reveal was Daniel first thought to be a person, and it was. But as the 'person' staggered and stumbled around to face him, and the pale-faced people around him, Daniel and Chris saw something that USED to be human, though age and the worms underneath the soil had eaten away at the skin.

Daniel gagged involuntarily as the putrid smell of rotting flesh invaded his nostrils, he barely noticed Chris sobbing and pressing his face into his neck again.

"Holy. Fuck," muttered Jack, before he raised his P90 and let rip, spraying bullets at the creature.

Chris wailed into his shoulder at the noise of gunfire.

It let loose an unearthly scream of tortured rage as blood and bits of dead flesh sprayed outwards as the bullets ripped into it; the thing looked at Daniel, it's left eye socket was empty whilst the right eye was still partially visible, though completely bloodshot.

It seemed to grin at Daniel because its upper lip and right cheek had been ripped from its face revealing a row of blackened teeth and gums; it grinned still as it ran at them, the bullets still hitting its chest.

"Oh god," muttered Janet from behind him.

More of the swells in the ground started growing, falling away just like the first and producing another monstrosity; a sizable chunk of this dead-woman's face had been torn away, her remaining milky-white eye seemed to glare at them with lustful hatred.

Another seemed to pop up from the ground; and was as equally grotesque as the last.

Jack looked around in barely-concealed horror as he stopped shooting, he turned to Daniel and said, "Daniel, get to Willow. Stop her!"

"Jack?!" Daniel shouted back, he couldn't bring Chris along. "What about Chris?!"

Jack glared at him as he let loose with another round of bullets, "Are you nuts!? I'm thinking he'll be safer with you…" another horrifying scream of rage from another of the creatures made him almost cringe. "…I'm thinking…'the lesser of two evils' here, Daniel!"

He DID have a good point, Daniel watched as Buffy flew at one of the undead as it pinned a nurse to the ground, she kicked it- and its head whipped off its shoulders and sailed over their heads.

Daniel felt an insane laughter bubble up inside him as he watched the still-grinning head bounce to the ground two meters away from him, he shook his head fiercely and focused on getting to Willow. He turned on his heal and ran in the direction that Jack at pointed him in.

The sounds of fighting, yells and gunfire filled his ears as Chris tightened his death-grip around him; he ran as fast as he could as the exhaustion and the child he was carrying weighed him down; the hunger-pains in his stomach weren't helping.

How long had it been since he'd eaten? Since ANYONE had eaten? Daniel immediately pushed the useless, irrelevant thoughts out of his mind and pushed himself forward, dodging another fast-growing hillock.

His beyond-tired mind played the main title song to the film 'Resident Evil' over and over again as he left the carnage behind him; he shouldn't have let Jack make him listen to that damn CD a month back.

Stupid zombie films.


	24. Chapter 24

**chapter 24**

Agent Grey fired another shot at the walking dead-person, his mind was reeling from everything he'd learned since his orders to kidnap Willow and Chris- the supposed 'Threat to American civilization'- what a laugh, the only 'threat to American civilization' had been the people giving him, Serena and his other team-mates those orders.

Now Serena, and most likely his other comrades, were dead and they were outside in the freaking pouring rain fighting these Zombie-fuckers while that Jackson guy and little Chris were going to talk Willow down from doing…whatever it was she was trying to do.

This was so FUBAR! Grey grabbed the Zombie's head and whipped it around, hearing the neck snap and then dropping the decayed corpse to the ground. These Zombie-people were pretty easy to eliminate, they were already falling apart before they'd woken up anyway; most of the body had almost completely lost its integrity.

A Zombie-woman suddenly caught him from behind, catching him by surprise, its foul breath washed over him making him want to throw up; he wrenched himself away with little effort and smashed his elbow into the mouth of the walking corpse, "Eat that."

Brains, fluids and parts of it's skull fell from behind the Zombie-woman's head; Grey grimaced in revulsion as he pulled his elbow out of the thing's rotted mouth, "Urgh, man!" his elbow was covered in slimy, decayed flesh and cold, semi-congealed blood.

"That's just plain gross."

The corpse collapsed into a heap on the mud-slick ground; and remained motionless as the raindrops hit the dead, grayish skin.

"Grey, behind you!" yelled Dawn as she grappled with one of the more disgusting-looking corpses. She jammed a thin tree branch into the things eye, spraying brackish oily slime over her; much to her revulsion.

Grey whipped around in time to see the zombie's half-eaten face snarling at him baring grayish, rotting teeth and black gums before the thing bowled him over to the ground, pinning him there.

His right arm was trapped between the zombie's body and his own, using the other arm he grasped the animated-corpse's lower jaw struggling to push it away from him- it was trying to bite him!

Suddenly the zombie's head exploded in a spray of fluid and soft matter, the thing went limp as Grey pushed the dead-er corpse off himself, he stood up quickly resisting the urge to throw up; he grimaced, "Zombie-mince, ugh." He looked ahead and saw that Sam was now turning her gun away from his direction and searching for another target, "Gotta remember to thank her for that."

Just as he wiped the disgusting gunk away from his face another zombie tore its way up through the ground, groaning with hunger; Grey sighed with exasperation, he was quickly losing his patience with these things.

The soldier ran at the zombie as it knelt on the ground, ready to start looking for food, and snapped his foot upwards to meet the thing's head; he heard the neck crunch and break before the zombie went limp.

He looked around and saw that the others were also locked in a zombie-fight, he was surprised that Willow hadn't given them harder obstacles to overcome- though, considering how many zombies there were, maybe she decided to go for quantity rather than quality.

Grey saw Teal'c rip one of the zombies away from Sasha, who had not faired so well against her zombie; he was glad that they had the big guy on their side. He was built like a tank and was just an effective.

He pointed his .45 at a random target- one of the undead that was reaching for Dawn while she wasn't looking- and pulled the trigger; the zombie's head jerked to the side, but it was still standing. Grey frowned as the zombie staggered towards him and away from an ignorant Dawn who was grappling with a woman that looked like someone had stuck an axe in her torso several times.

As the zombie, presumably a former pizza-boy, stumbled towards him Grey sighed and holstered the gun before striding quickly to the walking decayed corpse, grasping its head with both hands and twisting it; snapping it neck and killing it.

Apparently only neck-breakage was effective with these things, so much for guns; he felt almost no fear for these things, they were so slow. But what would the corpses do if they got a grip of one of them?

He'd watched 'Resident Evil' several times, the first, second and third one AND he'd played all the games- would they eat them? Were they contagious?

He didn't think so. Grey grabbed a fallen machete and swung it into the nearest zombie's neck, it dropped to the ground in two pieces motionless once again; where had the machete came from?

Grey shrugged, he was never the one to look a gift-horse in the mouth.

The agent wiped rain from his eyes after a particularly loud clap of thunder, he cringed as a flash of lightening lit everything up momentarily before darkening again. He hoped Daniel hurried up and got Willow down from her dark-magic-high soon; he wasn't sure how many earth-shattering thunderclaps the planet could endure without ACTUALLY shattering.

No way were storms THIS bad, it was unnatural.

The question to Grey's earlier question of 'what would the corpses do if they got a grip of one of them?' had finally been answered as a scream of pain rented the air; his turned around quickly to see Janet smashing the heel of her hand into the walking corpse of a former teenage boy, the zombie-teen had left the bloody imprint of his teeth on the doctor's arm.

The zombie-teen staggered away from her slightly from the force of the blow, and then was joined by another one of the previously-dead people, a truck-driver; or he used to be anyway, both the undead grabbed the struggling doctor.

Shit, Grey tightened his grip on the machete and ran towards Janet as the torrential rain fell harder; hoping he'd reach her in time.

* * *

Just as Daniel was about to come to the conclusion that he'd gone in the wrong direction he passed a mess of trees that were creaking in the wind and passed a small hill, craning his neck in time to see a dark figure standing not twenty feet away from him and Chris.

He couldn't see her very well, he'd had to take his glasses off because the rain was glancing off the lenses and making it hard for him to see anything, his vision was blurry but he could see better without them on in this weather; he walked towards the figure steadily.

"Mommy?" Chris's rain-soaked face lit up like a Christmas tree as he saw the figure; he then flinched as a crack of lightning shook the ground beneath them. "Everything's shaking 'gain."

Daniel looked around, he knew that the shadowed figure was Willow, he looked beyond the silhouette and sucked in a breath as he struggled to stay upright against the hurricane-like winds, three huge, but slim, funnels of darkness moved along the ground ahead of the witch by at least fifty meters.

He swallowed as fear slid down his spine, the tornados were ripping its path into Colorado Springs quickly; he needed to act fast. He lowered Chris to the soaking ground and looked at him steadily, "Chris, I need you to stay here, okay?"

Chris just looked at him worriedly and nodded, "O-okay."

Daniel was about to stand up when his son grabbed his sleeve tightly, he looked down at the boy, "Chris-

"I wanna see mommy," he said, and looked close to tears.

Daniel hated to leave him there, but the tornados quickly moving towards his town weren't going to wait for them, "Chris, I can't explain right now- I don't have any time. Just trust me and stay here; I'll get her back."

The redheaded boy looked at him tearfully and nodded silently.

"J-just…don't go anywhere," the archaeologist said helplessly.

Then he ran towards Willow hoping he hadn't waited too long and climbed the small, but no less tiring, hill to get to her.

* * *

As Chris watched his dad partially disappear a small hillock started slowly growing behind him, the events since he and his mom were kidnapped started catching up to him as he sat heavily on the sodden ground, the huge jacket wrapped around him tightly.

Echoes of that 'Kinsey' man's screams ran through the boy's mind as he remembered the monster dragging him into the ceiling, he sniffled in growing fear as he wondered whether the monster was still around.

He hugged his knees, wrapping the coat tighter around himself to stave off the growing fear and coldness now seeping into his bones; his hair plastered to his head by the torrential rainfall, his shook as he struggled to get warm.

He looked up towards the two shadowy figures; oblivious to the rising mound still growing behind him.

* * *

Willow raised her arms, wet black hair flapping behind in the wind as she fixed her slightly unfocused dark brown irises on the black sky above her. Several flashes of lightning hit the ground producing a deafening noise that filled the entire town; the streets were deserted but a few stragglers were running around trying to find shelter.

She blinked as she lowered her arms, her gaze found the funnels that she'd made; they were ripping through a parking lot, she couldn't see any people – just lots of cars.

The tornados tore through the vehicles relentlessly, several of them exploded in a flash of orange and yellow light before being sucked up one of the funnels.

The complete and utter emptiness that filled her pushed away any thoughts that might have been filling her head at that moment; her blank look took in the devastation that her creations were leaving behind.

The magic, the darkness, was endless; it whispered suggestions in her ear of all the things she could put right, it made her see everything in a new light; all the evil that walked the earth.

Not just the demons…no THEY were meant to be evil, they were made that way…a lot of them had no choice, it was just in their nature. Like tigers to fawns, they were the hunters because that was all they knew.

But, humans…no, they had their free will, they came into the world with souls and they still committed worse atrocities than even the demon community could ever hope to commit.

And the earth, she could feel it…it was screaming, choking on all the pollution they'd made; crying, devastated at all the wars they were carrying out- ruining what the earth cared for, the inhabitants.

She could feel the betrayal that leaked out of every fiber of the world's being; the planet was dying after it had taken them in, looked after them…provided them with the basics of everything they needed. Food, water, even cures to the poisons that lurked around them.

The earth screamed at the injustice at all of this, the human race was taking and taking and taking, draining the planet a little bit at a time and leaving behind manmade abominations that the humans used to destroy each other and the world that they lived on at the same time.

The earth fought back indignantly with storms, flash-floods, anything it could still control, that was its right. But it wasn't enough, the humans were destroying not only the planet but, inevitably, themselves along with it. As fast as the planet tried to heal the Ozone layer, protecting itself and the inhabitants from the scorching sun, the humans were just damaging it again and again.

It was too much, it couldn't keep it up forever.

Soon, the sun would bare itself, full and unhindered. Soon the inhabitants would burn for their careless, thoughtless mistakes.

Willow shook her head violently as the blackness seeped into her eyes, she could feel it- it WAS too much, everything was too much. They spent so long trying to save the world, but the world screamed at them for saving it, for prolonging its torture.

No matter what anyone did the world was going to end, either by demons or humans; all the inhabitants were against the very planet keeping them all alive.

The black-haired witch flung out her hands, angry at the world's people for creating so much pain and agony; the same pain that was tearing at her mind and soul; the whole town lit up as bright as if the sun was high up in the sky, then it darkened as the lightening faded away.

The clap of thunder overhead filled her ears with such a noise they would be ringing for hours to come; the ground beneath her shook from the force of the storm- it literally cracked like an egg being hit by a tablespoon.

The whispering in Willow head grew louder, more insane; it was too much, she clamped her hands over her ears tightly; her eyes wide as she stared ahead. She felt the urge to scream, but she couldn't…she didn't know how to.

"Willow?" a familiar voice flitted through her mind…no, it wasn't in her mind; she'd…heard it…

A bolt of lightening hit the road in front of 'O'Malley's Bar and Grill' splitting stone and slicing a tear straight through the road, stone and dust flew up from the ground by the impact and clattered back down.

The windows to the Bar and Grill shattered along with dozens of other houses as the windows to several houses near to the bar and grill also shattered noisily. Car horns blared angrily filling the streets with the alarming noise.

Willow whipped around in shock as she felt two hands grip her arms tightly, her vision was more than a little blurry, she stared ahead at the person in front of her, unable to comprehend what was happening- there was so much power, she couldn't control it; all she could do was feel it as it focused on the anger of the whole planet.

"…have to stop…everything…want that!?..." his voice pierced through the fog of insanity that was clouding her mind. She didn't understand; her vision cleared for a second; she recognized him…she thought she did…

"….dangerou…have to…Chris…" he shouted at her, but she almost couldn't hear him, the screaming from the planet was too loud; she didn't know anything anymore.

Just pain and suffering.

Wait….Chris?...

Willow frowned as the echoes of the planet subsided slightly, Chris was dead? Was he? She didn't know….she had to find out…

She fought hard to concentrate through the haze of the planet's rage…her own rage at what had happened; was Chris alive?

She gritted her teeth against the echoing yells of everything around her, she needed to know…

She forced the screaming to fade a little for a small amount of time and was able to see Daniel for the first time in what felt like ages; then she concentrated on her son; hoping he wasn't…

/….Chris?…./

* * *

Christopher Rosenberg shook violently, freezing cold and terrified as he huddled up tighter inside the coat, where did his shirt go? It had Snoopy on it. He was so cold, he gritted his teeth hard against another blow of the strongest and scariest-sounding wind he'd even felt; he rocked to the side as the wind blew at him and knocked him onto his side.

It was so cold, maybe he should get back up. Maybe that would just make him colder…he should use magic…should he? The screams of Kinsey echoed through his mind again; he shook his head hard, No! he'd NEVER use magic ever again!

It was bad, it made HIM bad; he hurt people…he'd hurt his mommy. Chris sniffled as he felt tears welling up in his closed eyes; he barely noticed the weight on him or the groan.

Magic made him WANT to be bad, he'd LIKED it. Just like his mommy liked it; it was making her bad too…just like him.

He felt the coat being torn slowly away from him, the frozen wind attacked his small body, freezing him. He gasped in horror and pain as his tear-filled eyes snapped open, the widened in terror as the man looked at him.

He was horrible, his eye wasn't right, he was torn; he looked dead. It grinned at him frighteningly showing him a mouthful of grey teeth and black gums; the putrid breath washed over him making him retch in revulsion.

The man gripped his arm pulling Chris towards him, rotted mouth gaping; lifeless eyes wide in hunger; Chris tried to scream but terror choked him, tightening his throat. His couldn't breathe!

A strained croak was the only sound Chris could manage as he stared at the thing with blind terror.

/Chris?/ He heard his mommy; he felt hope light up inside him a second before he heard the screams of many people and the hope vanished quickly as if it had never been there.

Chris let out a straggled choking sound as the screams filled his head; he had to get them away! He had to make them stop!

/STOP IT…NO…STOP…/ his mind shouted to anyone, anything, who would listen.

He felt his power ignite and strike out…Chris barely noticed that the zombie-man had exploded in a cloud of bone fragments, soft matter and dead flesh…in fact, he completely forgot about the thing.

The tortured screeches of everything around him pushed every thought from his mind; the primal fear inside him tasted of copper.

* * *

/STOP IT...NO…STOP…/ Willow flinched back as her son's pained voice slammed into her mind; she could feel him…his terror…his guilt…

She had to stop it, she had to stop everything…he was so scared…

But she couldn't stop it, it was too powerful…she didn't know how to control it anymore…to pull back inside herself…

Daniel was staring at her in puzzlement, she focused on him, confused, and heard his thoughts in her own head.

/please stop this, stop it, Chris needs you; he's scared…/

Looking at his earnest gaze she felt the guilt slam into her; the knowledge that Chris was alone outside in the freezing cold…that the zombies she'd…God, the dead people she'd forced magic into…to attack her friends…the father of her son…

Willow felt the magic dotted around where she'd left them to fight her family; she felt the magic that she'd used to create the tornados, the storms; she drew in the magic, knowing she couldn't control it…that it was too much…

The magic filled her, Willow screamed and threw it, and everything she felt, up towards the heavens where she knew Chris would not be.

Everything went white….

And then she knew no more.

* * *

Daniel grasped Willow's arms tightly, yelling at her, "Please, just stop this!"

He watched her eyes, a few times he'd seen her eyes clear; he knew he was starting to get her attention; what was wrong with her? She was completely out of it.

He felt his heart skip a beat as Willow's eyes focused on his own; he could see the terror and the helplessness in them, "Willow? Chris needs you. I know you want to stop-

He frowned in confusion as Willow cringed, his confusion strengthened as she seemed to be in a lot of pain; he stared at her as she turned her wide, agonized, darkened-green eyes onto him.

Then he felt a powerful force blow him backwards off his feet and onto the muddy ground, then he heard the scream; full of raw emotions and dark power.

The emotions behind the scream made him jump up, to help her; he had to help her.

Daniel's eyes widened and then everything around him went white…

…then black.

* * *

Janet Frasier twisted the head of the zombie around ninety degrees and felt the satisfaction of watching it fall to the ground; she looked around.

The ground around them all was littered with the bodies of the dead, hillocks were still growing quickly and pushing out the abominations; she was exhausted.

The things they were fighting might have been easy to kill but there were SO many of them, they came non-stop; as soon as one was down several others popped out of the earth; this was all like something out of a bad horror movie.

Grey was nearest to her and had been there after he'd helped her fight off a surprise attack from another of the walking corpses, after this was over she had to remember to thank him.

The laceration on her arm was hurting like hell, she hadn't had any time to use something to stop the bleeding and had to alternate between staunching the flow with her other hand when she wasn't fighting.

That hadn't been very often. The blood streamed down her arm in a spider web pattern of fresh blood.

Her head snapped to the side as she heard an almost-inhuman scream come from the direction that Daniel and Chris had gone in.

She hoped that they were alright.

A growl of hunger caught her complete attention, she saw the animated dead-person run at her unsteadily and was about to fend off the attack when, to her shock, the thing fell to the ground.

She stared at it, waiting for it to move. It didn't.

"What the hell?" she heard Grey say, she looked up and saw that he was staring at two of his own zombie-pals, they were both lying unmoving on the ground.

All of them were.

Janet saw everyone look around in confusion, the zombies were all dead…or, um…dead-er. What had happened?

She looked at Sam, meeting her tired and perplexed gaze over the innumerable crowd of dead bodies littering the ground around them all.

Before she had any chance of thinking anything else the world around her lit up so bright that she was almost scared; she screwed her eyes shut against the blare and, after what seemed like years, then she opened them again.

What she saw made her gasp with surprised disbelief.

* * *

Chris lay, stunned, under the coat as the light filled his vision; the tortured screams of everything around him had left him stunned, shivering with fear and shock. He wasn't cold anymore, there was no wind.

His empty stomach growled; it sounded like the man from a few minutes ago; he just curled up tighter, crying, and hoped that someone he knew would come soon.

* * *

Xander pulled himself from under several limp zombies, breathing heavily, and climbed to his feet. He gaped as he looked around, then he shook his head.

"She always was an overachiever," he muttered to himself as he looked up at the calm, cloudless sky above him.

Chris? Willow? Xander looked in the direction that he'd seen Daniel and Chris go in and made a tired run towards his friends, he hoped they were alright.

* * *

Daniel opened his burning eyes and stared straight ahead, he was lying down on the rain-soaked muddy grass beneath him; he focused on the motionless person a few feet away from him and slowly sat up.

He blinked and then his eyes widened, "Willow?" he jumped up, exhaustion still weighing him down, and ran to her side; he knelt down and placed his hand on her shoulder. "Will?"

Nothing. No response.

A fear similar to what he'd felt when Sha're had been hit by a staff blast the first time he went through the 'gate to Abydos hit him with the force of a dozen Jaffa; he put two fingers to her neck and above her pulse-point.

There was a beat, he could feel it! Relief flooded through him as he turned her over onto her back; he gasped as he saw the blood flow from her nose, her mouth, her…her eyes?

Daniel shook his head, "She's okay…you're okay…"

He pulled her up into a sitting position and held her against him protectively, "You're okay…" he didn't want her to choke…all that blood.

Daniel noticed suddenly that Willow's hair lacked the black colour it had been several minutes ago; it was now red. He smiled…lovely red...not the black.

Always red.

* * *

Xander finally saw them, he stopped as his body sagged with tiredness; he fell to his knees and then sat down as he looked at them. Daniel was alive…obviously; and Willow…was looking very unconscious.

The dark-haired man got up quickly, so quickly that the blood rushed to his head; making him dizzy. He shook it off and walked forwards- then he stopped as he saw the wet coat and the lump underneath it; the leg poking out from under it.

Chris!

Xander ran to the coat and pulled it off the young boy, "Chris?"

Chris lay on his side, staring blankly up at him; his skin was pale with shock and his lips were tinged with blue…but he was alive.

Xander wrapped the coat around Chris again and picked the boy up carefully, he didn't want Chris to get pneumonia; he turned around and looked at Daniel and his best friend.

He hoped Will was alright.

As he walked towards the pair he felt Chris move his head, a light brush on his arm, and looked down at him- still walking-, "Chris?"

The boy upturned his head to look at him; wary-relief shone in his eyes but Chris remained silent and tired-looking; he reached up and grabbed Xander's sodden collar.

Xander got the idea and hitched Chris up into a different position so that the boy could wrap his arms around his neck, Chris hugged Xander tightly and buried his face into his shoulder, sniffling tearfully.

Xander hugged his nephew as he finally got to Willow and Daniel; he looked at her fearfully, "Willow?" blood streamed from her nose, eyes and mouth.

That didn't look too good.

"Daniel?" he looked at the man questioningly. "Is she-?" did he want to know? What if she was-

Daniel swallowed hard and smiled slightly, "She's alive."

Xander sagged with relief, sitting down heavily, "Thank god…" If she'd died…he didn't know what he'd do; she was his Willow.

Daniel looked at the boy in Xander's arms, "Chris?" he looked at Xander; their eyes met in a kind of mutual understanding.

Xander nodded and stroked Chris's soaking-wet hair back from his face, "Chris? Look at me."

Reluctantly, Chris lifted his head from Xander's shoulder and pulled away from him, he looked up; Xander felt his face soften as the four-year-old's tear-streaked face looked at him; he met the boy's scared eyes, "Wanna go with your dad?"

Chris turned away from him and looked at Daniel, then he turned back and loosened his death grip from around his Uncle Xander's neck stating his answer without words. He nodded and reached for Daniel, who grabbed his son with his free arm.

Chris hugged him, wrapping his arms around Daniel's neck, now, and sobbing as he looked at his mom; he reached out an unsteady hand and touched her bloodied face gently.

Red stained his fingertips; the kind of red that must have become so familiar to the child over the past few days; the boy looked up at his dad anxiously, the look that asked him whether his mom was alright or not.

Chris's attention snapped to his mom as Willow groaned quietly, he stared at her silently, hopefully.

Xander also looked at her, was she going to wake up? "Will?" please wait up, please wake up, please-

She opened her eyes slightly, her eyes glinted out from beneath her eyelids; she groaned again and then her eyelids drooped, now unconscious again.

Chris looked at Xander, then at Daniel, then back at Xander again, looking scared.

Xander looked at his nephew, "She's just tired; she'll be okay. Just sleeping." They ALL needed to sleep. Like for a MONTH!

Chris nodded, accepting the answer.

Footfalls caught their attention, Xander looked up and saw Buffy, Grey, Giles and SG1 looking at them; now standing there. Giving them some space, he looked at Buffy and smiled.

Buffy smiled tiredly back at Xander, relieved, their eyes met and they nodded to each other. It was going to be fine.

Their family had remained intact.


	25. Chapter 25

**Chapter 25**

**Epilogue part 1  
**

**3 months later**

**September 27th**

Christopher Rosenberg sighed heavily as he looked around the school playground, he looked closely at the sheets of rain that poured from the darkening sky; good thing he had his raincoat on or he'd be soaked.

The redhead looked down and scuffed his shoe on the asphalt beneath him, careful not to make his hood slip off his dry head; he jumped slightly as two of his classmates ran past him towards the school gates.

He wanted to be away from this school, he HATED it there; he'd only been at the school for a week and already we wanted to go back to his other one, the others didn't know him and some laughed at him today, some of them thought he was odd- not that that was much of a change- because he was over a year younger than them. Chris scowled at the ground angrily, "Stupid school."

He'd been moved up to first grade early, which was one good thing about all this; at least he wasn't bored with the work anymore- but it was still really easy. They said that moving up more than one grade wouldn't be good for him.

He wished that he was with his friends, Hailey and Ty, but he wasn't in Cleveland anymore and he doubted that they'd ever move back. Although he liked Daniel a lot he kinda missed his home and his school…

Mostly he missed-

"Chris!"

Chris's head snapped up as he heard his name, he smiled as he saw his dad running up to him- he was soaking wet! Silly-Billy, he should have put a raincoat on, like him.

"Hiya, Daniel," he said shyly. He clutched his book-bag tightly and stared up at the man through rain-soaked lenses. "You're all wet!"

Daniel smiled, "Ya, I forgot my coat…but there's one thing I HAVEN'T forgotten." He smirked secretively.

Chris's interested piqued, "What? What haven't you forgotten?" he wanted to add 'dad' to that last part but it still seemed strange to him; he'd spent over four years of his life without a dad and now he had one.

He called him 'dad' sometimes but it was mostly 'Daniel' he called him- out loud anyway, in his head he always called him 'daddy', 'cause he knew that that was what the man was. He was his dad.

"I'll tell you in the car," replied Daniel to his question. "C'mon." he led Chris in the direction of the school gates.

As they walked passed the gates and along the sidewalk Chris, grasping Daniel's hand, looked up at him, "Has she woke up yet?"

Rain spilled onto his freckled cheeks as he looked up, Daniel gave him a sad look and shook his head, "Sorry, Chris."

Sadness and disappointment swept over him for the millionth time it seemed to him, "Oh." And that was it…

Oh.

What else could be said, over the last three months he'd heard that apology so many times since…

Since his mommy had been to hospital, the nice lady Doctor Janet Fraiser was taking care of her; but she still hadn't woken up yet. He knew she wasn't gone- not like Serena was, but all the same it seemed as though she was.

She just lay there on the hospital bed and refused to wake up, everyone was saying that she was in a coma…it was sorta like sleeping for a long time. Which was also what dying was…only, when you were in a coma you could wake up at any time; when you were dead you were asleep forever.

When was she going to wake up? He missed her, he just wanted everything to be like it was before the stupid men had messed everything up…

Well, not Duncan…he was nice, he helped him and his mommy get out in the first place.

But if he HADN'T taken him and mommy they never would have needed to be help; everything would be great and Serena wouldn't be dead, his mommy wouldn't be in a coma and missing everything.

Suddenly, Chris realized that they'd stopped walking; they were now beside the car- but Daniel wasn't opening the door, he was kneeling down in front of him, "I miss her," Chris mumbled suddenly.

Daniel sighed, "Let's get inside the car." He opened the door to the back seats and they both got in, shutting the door behind them.

Chris sat on the kid-seat whilst his dad sat next to him on the normal one, he stared at his dad curiously.

"Chris, I-I know that this is hard on you," he said as he took the raincoat off Chris. "But try not to let it get you down, she'll wake up soon. I'm sure of it."

The sounds of cars drifted in through the window

Chris looked away feeling hot tears well up in his eyes, his throat clenching painfully, "What if sh-she doesn't, she'll m-miss another-

Daniel pulled him out of his seat and onto his lap, hugging him, "She would have been there if she could, you know that."

Chris nodded, his glasses digging slightly into his skin; he took no notice, it wasn't important, "Uh huh…" But she wasn't here today…he wanted her here today more than anything; more than the presents that his family had given him that morning.

"You have to be brave, okay," continued Daniel as Chris pulled away. "When she wakes up…not IF but WHEN…she'll see how brave and grown-up you are."

The redhead smiled through his tears, feeling a flicker of pride amidst the grief and sadness, "I'm a whole five years old now."

Daniel smiled and poked him playfully in the stomach making him giggle, "That's right, you're almost all grown up…so…"

"I'm real brave," finished Chris, wiping his face dry.

"Exactly," agreed Daniel, he shifted to the right slightly and lent down to pick something up, careful not to dislodge him. "This is something that I didn't have on me to give to you this morning." His hand grasped a thick well-read looking book.

Chris looked at him, confused, as he was given the book, "What's this?" it was heavy, a heavy book! Those were his favorite kind of books!

"Well, I used to live in Egypt when I was a little kid," explained Daniel, smile dropping a little. "Moved to America when I was eight, and over the years that my parents and I were in Egypt we collected and catalogued everything we ever found there."

A beat later and Chris's eyes went wide, "This is from Egypt, this is real Egypt stuff?" he looked down at the book feeling as though it was best thing he'd ever gotten in his whole life.

Daniel nodded, "Yes."

"Wow! Th-this is all grown-up Egyptian; not like the kid workbooks I get from the shop, this is real?"

Daniel nodded, "Exactly, it's a very old book that I've had for a very long time; and like we said, you're almost grown-up now."

Wide eyes were now fixated on Daniel, he continued, "You'll look after it, right? It's very important to me…well, I already know you'll take care of it. I would."

Chris felt a happy smile tugging at him lips, the first real smile in months, "I'll look after it, I promise. You're parents don't mind, right?"

He frowned as he saw his dad's smile dropped, "What? Did I say something wrong?" what did he say?

Daniel shook his head, "No, you didn't say anything wrong. My…" he paused looking thoughtful, a sad smile played across his face. "My parents are gone, they went away a long time ago."

Gone? "You…you mean like, angels?" up in the sky, like his mommy had said. When people went away forever, when they weren't able to stay, they went up to heaven with the angels and they looked down at you from the sky.

So far up into the sky that you could never see them, but they could always see you; they'd stare down at you, wanting you to keep being happy, that's what his mommy and her friends said.

That's what Aunt Tara, Grammy Joyce, Uncle Jesse, Aunt Jenny and the others were doing, they went away a long time ago.

"I guess," replied Daniel, smiling again. "It's only one of the books I got from them; I thought you might like it."

Chris nodded brightly, his lenses still wet, "I do, can…can I look in it?" what if he wanted him to look at it when they got back to the apartment, or after dinner; he'd be thinking about his mommy ALL the time and that made him really sad. But if he was reading-

"Go ahead," replied Daniel. "It's what it's there for. We'd best get going now, though." With that said he ruffled Chris's hair slightly, buckled him into his kid-seat and then got out of the car.

A couple of seconds later the drivers' side door opened and the archaeologist climbed in before jamming the key into the ignition, "Meatloaf tonight, sound good?"

Chris nodded as he opened the book, "Yup, can I have ice-cream afterwards?" he looked up from the book hopefully as the car pulled away from the sidewalk.

"Only if you eat all your dinner," said Daniel, as they drove out of the street. "Then, you can."

Grinning, Chris asked, "Can I have chocolate ice-cream?" please, please, please, please, please-

Nothing said for a moment, then, "I think I have some in the freezer, if not Jack'll have a few tubs of it."

Chris blinked, looked down thoughtfully and said, "With chocolate sauce?" 'cause that was the best thing to have with chocolate ice-cream; that and whipped cream…yummy!

"We'll see," replied Daniel, turning a corner onto a different street, rain pounded on the windows, the windscreen wipers looked like two thin, black arms waving at him and wiping the rain water away.

"But, can I?" did that mean he could?

"Maybe, don't know if I have any," he explained as he watched the road in front of them.

Oh, well, chocolate ice-cream by itself was still yummy, smiling brightly, he started reading through the pages of photographs, pictographs; hieroglyphs in the book. They were already translated but Chris covered the words quickly and made sure to only look at the different languages.

He pushed his anxious and depressing thoughts to the back of his mind and started concentrating on translating the language on the current two pages; he could already feel himself relaxing.

* * *

Daniel scooped up a chunk of chocolate ice-cream from his glass bowl, looking at his son opposite him, "How was school?"

Chris looked at him, frowning and shrugged, "It's okay, sorta." The five-year-old ate another spoonful of his ice-cream quickly, getting some on his upper lip.

He could tell his son was lying; inability to lie obviously ran in the family both ways, "'Sorta?'"

Chris finished off his ice-cream and looked at him solemnly, "I miss Tyler and Hailey, and the other kids are mean to me; I want everything to be like before." He closed his eyes momentarily and then opened them, looking at his dad.

Daniel understood, aside from the absence of Willow, the others and everything else Chris knew there was also the fact that from now on they'd both be monitored by the SGC, the Joint Chiefs and pretty much everyone else who knew about what had happened three months ago; they were all waiting for Willow or Chris to lose it again and to say that everyone was cautious would be the understatement of the century.

"Chris, you know that they'll only be watching you for a LITTLE while, right?" asked Daniel, he cringed inwardly. Speaking of understatements…

Chris looked at him seriously for a moment, too seriously, "They want to watch us until we go bad again, they don't trust us…and I don't think that they should." He looked down guiltily.

Sadness and anger swept through him, "It's NOT your fault, if you want to blame anyone blame the people who started this."

No! Chris should blame HIM, he was the one who'd screwed up, he was the one who hadn't been fast enough. He was the one who'd let all of this happen!

Chris looked at him tearfully; eyes haunted, "I ruined everything, I hurt mommy; Serena gone now and Duncan's really sad because she's gone, mommy's not awake and Auntie Anya and Uncle Xander aren't getting married anymore. And I killed people!"

Daniel was up and holding Chris in his arms before he'd even realized it, he rubbed his back gently and carried him over to the sofa before sitting down, "Okay, first off, none of this is your fault-

Chris opened his mouth to protest, but Daniel shushed him and continued, "Your mom WILL wake up soon, just gotta wait a bit longer-

"HOW long!?"

The archaeologist sighed, "I don't know, but she will; and she'll be awake to see your Aunt Anya and Uncle Xander's wedding." At least he HOPED so anyway.

Chris sniffled, "I hope so, she doesn't even know they're getting married. Not yet anyway."

Not YET, Daniel smiled inwardly, maybe Chris was coming around to the idea that she might survive after all; he'd lost so much hope over the last few months and had stubbornly come to the conclusion that his mommy would always be 'asleep'.

Thankfully and not surprisingly, Xander and Anya had postponed their wedding until Willow came out of her coma; they still didn't know when she would though.

But Xander and Anya were both staying at Colorado Springs for when Willow woke up; Xander said that they might stay there permanently because they liked the house, and the street they were in. Xander was excelling through his job in carpentry and was thinking of starting up his own business.

But at the moment, they had all their attention on waiting to see when Willow would wake up; though the doctors at the SGC weren't able to estimate the time that the redhead might awaken.

Apparently, according to Janet, Willow's body had simply shut down somewhere between her passing out in his arms and her being carried to the vans still waiting for them.

Giles had said that Willow had expelled the dark-magic and energy inside her entirely and her body had, therefore, given out completely and she'd lapsed into a coma. Her body was slowly healing itself as the magic- equally slowly- returned to her, though, thankfully, the magic wasn't tainted with rage and grief.

At least, not completely anyway.

Daniel, Janet and the others were stunned that, after Willow's body had shut down, she'd been alive after they'd gotten her hooked up to a life-support machine; it was as if she'd died and waited until she could be helped before she'd resettled into herself…it was complicated…strange.

No one knew how that had been possible; Willow's friends had some ideas but that was it- Chris, of course, had immediately believed that all of Willow's deceased friends were 'watching over her'.

Which, considering what had happened over the last few months- what they'd found out, could very well be true.

It all just gave him a headache.

Daniel was brought out of his thoughts when he realized that Chris was staring up at him, perplexed, the archeologist just smiled, "You'll be okay- everything will be okay, soon. It won't be like before, but it won't be as bad as you think. It'll all just take time."

Chris nodded, eyes now dry, and wrapped his arms around his dad's chest, "You're gonna look after me, right?" he looked up at him, eyes wide.

"I will," he replied, but still, inside he was worried. He hoped that after Willow did wake up he'd still have the chance to spend time with his son. Chris was already starting to grow on him, plus- his team absolutely adored him, especially Sam; the kid gave Jack a headache whenever he talking about Egyptian artifacts, Teal'c was having a second chance at looking after a small child.

Apparently, he reminded him a little of Rya'c when he was a little boy.

Agent Grey hadn't let a day go by without at least talking to Chris over the phone, long conversations that would cost the young soldier a pretty big phone bill; some times all the soldier could do was phone Chris.

Daniel ruffled Chris red hair absentmindedly as he recounted the last few months; Agent Duncan Grey had been detained by his own superiors; debriefed and then had been released and transferred over to the SGC.

Apparently Duncan was waiting for a position on one of the teams to be opened, at the moment SG12's second in command was close to being promoted and given his own team; so the agent was pretty much veering towards joining SG12.

Unfortunately for Duncan he had to go through t LEAST a year's SGC training; he was trained as a soldier but not every soldier was cut out to be in the SGC.

It was also pretty much the same deal for Dawn Summers, who had graduated Med School with full marks at the top of her class…hell, top of her entire YEAR; she was very gifted in the area of Medicine and Janet had expressed a great interest in recruiting Dawn to join the SGC and her Medical team. But at the moment, she was to go through training- both medically and military- at the A.F. Academy.

One thing was for sure Buffy was certainly very proud of her little sister and had taken some time off her job as a High School counselor to fly out to Colorado; she was followed by none other than Clem who had decided to visit Chris and Willow again.

He was a regular visitor, the passengers on the plane wrote off Clem's odd appearance as a bad skin condition- which wasn't anything new.

Daniel looked at the clock on the wall: 8:57pm and said, "'kay, Chris. It's bedtime for you." He looked down at him and saw that the boy was fast asleep, glasses askew, and breathing calmly.

But he knew that it wouldn't last long.

* * *

Duncan Grey drew away quickly from another Intar shot, a red light glared out from the semi-darkness as he pointed his own weapon at his 'enemy' and fired, turning around at the last second to avoid a hit.

An electrical sound and a grunt, then a muffled 'thump' immediately told Duncan that he'd hit his target; good thing he had cover, even if it was just a crate it was better than nothing.

Suddenly an electrical charge shot through him, he shook a little and slumped against the crate, dazed for a few moments, the crate's hard surface dug into his back.

Crap.

When his vision and senses cleared he looked behind him and groaned inwardly; he'd been shot from behind, he should have watched his back.

Duncan sighed, Colonel O'Neill was gonna have his head on a spike for getting shot; even though the Intar's were practically harmless the colonel still took it seriously…yes, he knew that 'if it had been a real weapon, he would have been dead' as O'Neill said; but, man, that guy could get real cranky.

Worse than Serena on bad day-

He shook the thoughts of his deceased best friend out of his mind, as O'Neill said, 'There was a time and a place'; he needed to concentrate on the training…the depression, grief-filled thoughts were better left for nights when he was in his apartment.

Duncan tightened his grip around his 'non-lethal Jaffa training weapon' and followed his 'CO' into another part of the warehouse where more of the training was taking place.

All in all, things had definitely changed over the last few months.

* * *

Daniel opened his eyes blearily and his gaze fixed on the blurry red digital numbers on the clock, in read: 12:22am. He turned over in his bed and wondered what had woken him up; he shrugged inwardly and closed his eyes again.

A second later his eyes snapped open and he pushed himself up by his elbow into a half sitting-up position as Chris's shout met his ears; he pushed himself out of bed and walked over to his bedroom door.

Chris was having another nightmare, it wasn't the first and it certainly wouldn't be the last one he ever had about that place, those people.

Anger simmered within Daniel as he cursed the NID for what they'd put Chris and Willow through; not just them but other people as well, Duncan was still grieving silently for his best friend, things were still 'up in the air' so to speak and Chris was having night-terrors.

Five years olds shouldn't have nightmares, not like those ones anyway.

Daniel pushed opened Chris's bedroom door, his eyes immediately found the light-blue colored bedcovers; he walked over to the bed as Chris cried out in his sleep again.

He flicked on the bedside lamp, casting a dim light around the room; he looked down at his son to find the child staring right back up at him with tear-filled eyes, "Hey, it was just a nightmare."

Chris sniffled, still looking up at him with the same child-like vulnerability that every kid his age possessed; his arm was wrapped around his stuffed bear- Loki- in a death grip, "D-daddy? They came back…Serena died again; I didn't do anything," guilt stained the boy's eyes making them appear dark.

Daniel felt anger stir within him again, "What happened to Serena isn't your fault-

"But I stood there, I didn't even try to do anything," he said, firmly believing that he was to blame. "She tried to save me, but I couldn't-

Daniel sat on the edge of Chris's bed as the boy sat up, "Exactly, you 'couldn't'; you would have if you were able to; like you said at your last session with Dr. Hawkins, you couldn't move because Doctor Bryce was holding you."

Chris nodded tearfully.

"And, even if he HADN'T been holding you," continued Daniel fervently. "No one could have stopped him, not you, not me; not even your mom." He HAD to know that!

But Chris still didn't looked convinced, Daniel sighed; inwardly thinking that this argument was better left 'til morning, "It's late, try to sleep, okay?"

The one good thought within the last few minutes was that at least Chris was talking again, the kid had spent the first few weeks after the ordeal completely silent; Daniel wasn't surprised.

The child looked worriedly at him; Daniel smiled reassuringly despite the anger that was bubbing beneath the surface, "You can come in with me, if you want." Chris usually slept in Daniel's room if he had a nightmare.

The young redhead nodded eagerly.

Chris was going to see his psychiatrist tomorrow afternoon, they'd be able to address his feelings of guilt in the sessions.


	26. Chapter 26

**EPILOGUE part 2**

**Higher Realms**

Willow scuffed her shoe on the 'ground' and turned her bored gaze to her former girlfriend, "You'd think my body would heal itself faster."

The blonde smiled calmly, "We've been over this before, Willow." Her light blue eyes sparkled as she looked at the redhead.

Willow nodded, "I know, Tara, but Chris needs me. And I'm up here…not being able to do ANYTHING and being completely useless." She sighed and wrapped her arms around herself miserably.

"Daniel's taking care of him," reminded Tara gently. "He really loves that kid, you know?"

Then, Tara snorted, "I still can't believe that you gave your friends Zombies of all things; I mean geeze, Will!"

Willow blushed, "Hey! I was nuts then!" at least the upturned graves had been redone again, that had looked easy enough from where she was.

"Still, at least Chris has family to look after him as well," continued Tara, looking at Willow.

The redhead nodded, "Yeah," then she snorted sardonically, feeling the irony build up around her. "All this time I've been looking for Chris's father, turns out he found us along with a bunch of alien-fighting commandos. Go figure."

The Slayerettes never could get normal guys, there was the demon-magnet aka Xander, Oz the werewolf, Moloch the computer demon and Tara…who actually wasn't a guy but was a witch to top off the strangeness.

"And now there's a guy who fights aliens for living; going through a polo-shaped 'gate into space," said Willow to herself; she looked at Tara thoughtfully. "At least he's not a giant preying Mantis."

Tara laughed, "Poor Xander, he always gets the demons."

"He still does," remarked the redhead, smirking. "But at least Anya isn't going to eat him." Although she didn't always like the former Vengeance demon she knew that Anya was good for her best friend…even if she was still lacking tact.

Tara grinned mischievously, "Admit it, Will. Anya was always the annoying sister you never had."

She's got that right, Willow had always had a not-quite-friendly sisterly relationship with Anya, a little sibling rivalry mixed up in there. Whilst with Buffy, well; she was always the sister she got on well with.

Most of the time anyway; and although Giles was kinda like a big brother to her; next to Anya she argued with him the most- but still often looked up to him. He was also a father to all three of them.

"Tare, how's Serena doing?" asked Willow curiously. "I haven't seen her around much today." Usually the former-agent was with them.

Tara looked down through the 'ground' at the world below them, below the realm that they were in, "She's off with Oma, being all ascended. You know."

Yup, getting used to 'life' as an Ascended being, the young woman was doing pretty well considering. She had moped after Grey for the first few days that she was ascended; at least until they had been determined to take her mind off her best friend's emotional state.

"Do you think she's ready yet?" Willow asked, her green eyes finding Tara's blue.

"The whole 'Enlightenment' thing?" asked Tara, smiling slightly.

Willow nodded.

"I don't see why she wouldn't be," the blonde replied thoughtfully. "But that's Oma's job, I don't know. But it's been months…at least down there anyway."

Up in the higher realms it had been a little longer, which was why Willow was so eager to get back down there. She missed her son; and also her friends…hell, she even missed Duncan Grey but mostly because Serena wouldn't stop going on about him.

Serena had been pleased that Chris was unharmed and had gotten out of the NID base alive, though she was upset about Chris going off the deep-end.

Willow frowned, guilt swirling around her stomach.

She just wished that Chris wasn't so traumatized over what had happened; though she had to admit to herself that if he wasn't so shaken up she'd be a little disturbed, "Yeah," Willow muttered to herself.

One thing was for sure, she'd never forgive herself for putting Chris though that; she'd taken an innocent, her own SON, and had filled him with evil- HER evil.

In some ways doing that to Chris was worse than trying to end the world, worse than killing Warren Mears; nothing she ever did would make up for what she did to him.

And she was just going to have to live with that.

* * *

**SGC**

Jack twiddled his thumbs, bored, as he listened to more of Carter's babbling; he was glad that he didn't really HAVE to actually listen to it, he felt kinda sorry for the General though.

They were all sat in the Briefing room listening to Carter talk about nano-technology, ten minutes ago they'd been talking about what had happened at the base of the NID; they'd done the debrief months ago.

Hammond was just keeping them up to date on the situation with Willow and Chris, all in all Jack knew that they had been pretty lucky; the consequences for their actions against the NID could have been a lot worse.

The last three months had been full of many headaches, cover-ups, security checks and whatnot; it was a good thing that three former-Initiative soldiers had taken it upon themselves to speak up for Willow and Chris, defending them at every direction.

Riley Finn, his wife Samantha and Graham Miller were friends of Willow's group and were also demon-hunters; they, along with SG1, Hammond and a few others, had managed to convince the Joint Chiefs and the President to not hold them accountable for their actions.

A full investigation had been opened up and by the end they'd been persuaded to leave them alone- partially anyway.

Willow and Chris were going to be monitored closely until the Government felt that they weren't a threat anymore, though they weren't obtrusive in any way. They just stayed away and watched them.

Though, the fact that Willow was comatose meant that monitoring was kept to a minimum; they didn't believe Chris to be as much of a threat as Willow, which was understandable because Chris was just a little kid…to them anyway.

If they'd seen Chris three months back he'd be feared as much as Willow was at the moment; but thankfully they hadn't been there.

If they had it also might have given them more of a reason to raise hell about the death of Kinsey; fortunately, his demise at the hand…tentacles of the 'fish-monster' had been covered up just like everything else.

According to the President, Kinsey had been on his way out anyway; it seems that good-old-Mr. President had gotten tired of Kinsey's presence around the government and had been working on sacking him for the past year or so.

Of course, in the public eye there had to be a reason; and now there was; officially: Senator Robert Kinsey had, silently, tendered his resignation several months ago and was now unable to be reached for questioning; he'd taken the quiet way out before anyone had known what was happening.

It seemed, to the public and to his family, that Kinsey had dropped off the face of the Earth and was completely untraceable. And 'officially', no one really knew anything other than the fact that Kinsey had given in his resignation and flown the coop so to speak.

Jack smirked to himself, feeling smug, as Major Carter's prattle passed over his head.

Unofficially, good ol' Kinsey had been eaten by a big fish and taken up into the ceiling to take what he so richly deserved.

The colonel grinned inwardly, life was good… and it would be perfect if Willow would just-

A knock jarred Jack out of his thoughts, he looked at his CO and then at the door as Hammond said, "Come in."

An airman opened the door and said, "Sir, the new patient, Willow Rosenberg, has just woken up."

YES! Jack grinned triumphantly and said, "Ain't life grand?"

Carter smiled.

Wasn't Danny gonna be pleased.

* * *

**Daniel's apartment**

Chris padded downstairs slowly, rubbing his eyes with one hand and clutching at Loki with the other; the embossed cotton image of 'Scooby Doo' grinned out from the child's navy blue night shirt.

Daniel smiled to himself as he watched Chris amble over to the kitchen table, yawning, "Morning, Chris."

The five year old mumbled something unintelligible, the only thing he could make out was, "Daniel." That was pretty much it.

"How's Loki this morning?" Daniel asked, only half serious. He grabbed a bowl as his son climbed into his chair clumsily.

Chris blinked through his myopic blue eyes, seemingly withdrew his glasses from nowhere and then put them on, "Loki's a toy, daddy."

Daniel smiled, "Of course he is. What was I thinking?" Chris shrugged sleepily to his rhetorical questioning.

The archaeologist looked up at the top of the refrigerator which held all the cereal, "Coco Pops?" he looked at Chris questioningly.

The redhead nodded, rubbing his eyes after taking his glasses off again; he replaced them a second later.

Daniel tipped the brightly-coloured box towards the white bowl and, without looking around, asked, "Did you have another nightmare?" no answer.

He turned back from the cereal-filled bowl as saw that Chris was peering at him with tired eyes; the boy nodded; frowning, "Did I wake you up?" the kid asked.

Daniel shook his head, "No, I'm a sound sleeper." Most kids wouldn't even know what that meant; but Chris nodded acceptingly.

He had one smart kid.

* * *

**Thirty-eight minutes later**

**Daniel's Apartment**

Chris traipsed down the stairs again, now clutching his new book to his light blue, dark-blue-striped shirt. The baseball cap he was wearing was crayon-blue with the 'Nike' stamped on the front just above the bill, "Daniel!"

He stepped off the last step and ran to into the other room, red drawstring pant flapped around his legs- a sign that the pants may be just a little too big for him.

The phone rang again, very loud through the apartment.

"Daddy, the phone's ringing!" he yelled, he fell silent and listened for the sounds of his dad; he heard the back door of the garden closing.

Chris ran to the phone, he didn't want the phone to stop ringing before his dad was able to get to it; he picked it up, "Hello?"

Someone was about to reply but his dad came into the room, Chris took the receiver away from his ear and held it up, "Someone's calling."

Daniel smiled at him and accepted the receiver, "Janet?" a few seconds later his eyes widened with shocked happiness. "She is? That's…that's…uh, I'll…I'll get over there. Bye."

He slammed the receiver down, making Chris jump a little, "Your mom's awake."

For a second Chris didn't feel anything, then the emotions hit him full force; joy, sadness, surprise, hope and anger, "She is!?"

Daniel nodded, "C'mon, I'll drive us over there!" he made a beeline for the door, grabbing his coat and car keys along the way, and then both of them were out of the house and running for the car.

Chris gulped, clutching Loki tighter, his mommy was awake.

* * *

**SGC**

"Well, Willow," said Janet warmly. "Daniel and Chris are on their way over here; you've finally joined the land of the living."

Willow smiled at the quip, but underneath the fake smile all she could feel was sadness and guilt, maybe some fear along with it, "Yeah." She looked away.

She'd woken up in the Infirmary about a half hour ago and Janet hadn't stopped poking and prodding her since; she just wanted to see her son again, "Do you know when they're gonna get here?"

Janet pressed her fingers into Willow's wrist, at the pulse point, again and said, "In a little while; it depends on traffic."

The redhead nodded, "I guess." On the one hand she wanted Chris and Daniel to take their time getting there; on the other hand she really wanted to see them…well, it going to be one of them, anyway.

She knew one thing though, she felt like crap.

* * *

"Mommy!" Chris ran into the room and raced to the bed before jumping onto it, he started to slip a little so Willow caught him and pulled him up further onto the bed.

"Hi, sweetie," she hugged the younger redhead tightly. "Glad to see you again." Loki was squashed between the two of them.

"Me too!" he exclaimed eagerly. "And you'll never guess what!"

"What?"

Chris grinned proudly as he pulled away from her, "I'm a whole five years old now!" she knew, she'd watched his reaction to her not being there on that day.

"You are!?" Willow smiled back at him. "Wow, suddenly I'm seeing you go off to college; you haven't got your driver's license yet, have you?"

Chris laughed, "No, mommy!" he hugged her again around the waist.

Willow stroked his head and looked up at Daniel, she smiled at his confused look and mouthed, 'I knew!' silently.

The archaeologist smiled brightly as he glanced at Janet; Willow smirked inwardly, no, Janet hadn't told her; she'd seen it looking down from the sky. How insane did THAT sound!?

Willow waved him over firmly, "Thanks for being there for Chris; he really needed you." And she knew that he still did.

She saw a sad smile play across his features and felt an ache deep in her chest, he probably thought that he wouldn't get to stay with Chris; she wouldn't do that, "Are you okay?"

Daniel nodded, smiling, "Fine, you?" Janet had left the room, huh; she'd only JUST realized that.

"Tired," then she smirked. "Despite the fact that I've been sleeping for about three months."

Daniel gave her a small grin, "Well, comas do do that…" then he winced; Willow just grinned and looked down as Chris sat up.

"Mommy? Can daddy come live with us?" he asked hopefully. He looked at them in turn, blue eyes wide behind his glasses. "Please!" he put his small hands together in the typical prayers position.

Lost for words, Willow just blinked at him and then looked at Daniel, "Um…" did Daniel want to live with them? If so where would that be? At Daniel's apartment? Back at Cleveland? Where?

Daniel laughed nervously, "Well, I think we kinda need to think about this a little more."

Willow eyed him, well; Anya and Xander HAD just moved to Colorado Springs, Chris had already started a new school- which she knew that he hated. What to do?

"Why do we need to think about it?" whined Chris pleadingly.

Willow tilted her head slightly in consideration, "Well…"

Chris jumped up excitedly, "I'll even go to that horrible school, a-and I can go over to Hailey and Ty in the holidays or the weekends, and Uncle Xander and Aunt Anya live here already anyway! And I think Dawn's moving here too! So that means that Aunt Buffy and everyone else will come over…just like when we were in Cleveland!"

His babble tapered off as he finished talking; he eyed them both hopefully.

Chris DID have a point…well, several actually. Maybe that would work out…but, no way, Daniel wouldn't want…, "Honey, I don't think that Daniel would want-"

She blinked as she caught his gaze, it was equally as hopeful as Chris's; if not, more so.

But that was because he wanted to get to know Chris more, not because…

Willow nodded slowly, coming around to the idea, "I guess we could do that." and why not? Besides, if the government drones really were going to start keeping an eye on them they'd probably want them staying where they were, in Colorado Springs.

"Yay!" yelled Chris, face lighting up immediately. He threw his arms around her neck and hugged her tightly, then he drew away and grinned at Daniel. "Now you really CAN be my daddy!"

Daniel smiled obviously pleased, and also extremely relieved. He grabbed Willow into a hug, caught up in the moment.

Willow felt her breath hitch in her throat at he pulled her to him, wow he smelled pretty nice, "Um…" she usually didn't like guys, right?

She's liked Oz and Xander…there was that Thomas guy- even if he WAS a vampire; heck, she had more crushes on guys than girls as she grew up. Tara was really the only woman she'd ever been in love with.

A small spark zipped through her at Daniel's touch, over the last few years she'd been theorizing a little that maybe she wasn't gay at all, but rather she just fell in love with the person inside…not the packaging- however attractive it was.

It made a lot more sense, actually. She'd never really been able to really explore that theory, she hadn't dated since Chris was born; she didn't want strangers near her child and, well, she'd been feeling too guilty to even think about dating after Tara had died.

She felt Daniel pull away suddenly and felt disappointment sweep through her, Willow looked at him and saw that he had an apologetic look on his face.

"Sorry," he fidgeted slightly, still looking guilty. "Just got-

-caught up in the moment," finished Willow knowing. "I get it." Then she looked away, feeling just as uncomfortable as he was. "You're sorry?"

Daniel looked at her for a moment, obviously speechless, "Um…" then he sighed and smiled sheepishly. "No, not really."

Willow felt relieved, "Oh, that's good." She noticed at the corner of her eyes that Chris was grinning excitedly up at them, but silent.

The archaeologist looked slightly confused, "I-it is?"

Willow smiled at him, "I guess." She looked at him, smiled widening; that look on his face was so cute!

Chris fidgeted with poorly-contained excitement, he was humming to himself a little while he gazed up at them, Willow just smiled at him and ruffled his hair, "Are you gonna get married now?!"

Willow felt her face burn, "A BIT too soon, Chris. Let's just see what happens first, okay." Daniel's face had gone a little pink as well.

Chris shrugged happily, "Okay!"

The two adults shared a pink-cheeked grin, then Daniel said, "I'm glad you're okay, you had me worried…US worried! Y-you had us worried…uh…" Daniel's face went pink again and he smiled sheepishly.

Willow smiled and nodded, "That's okay, Daniel. You were worried about me?" she watched him thoughtfully as he blinked, trying to answer without making himself embarrassed again.

"Uhhh…" he blinked, and then swallowed and nodded. "Yeah, I-I was worried; and not just because I thought Chris was going to lose you…but…"

The redhead nodded, "I get it…" she seemed to 'get' a lot about Daniel these days. She certainly knew that she wanted to get to know Daniel some more, and not only because he was Chris's father.

She had a feeling she'd get along quite well with Daniel Jackson.

* * *

THE END, look out for the sequel


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